These games hard on your heart

OK, everyone can now exhale.

Take deep breaths. Try counting slowly to 10. One, two, three, four…

Is it working? Calmed down yet?

What are those other tips for getting your heart rate to drop from your marriage-day level of nervousness?

Welcome to the East Aurora sectional, where a No. 1 seed playing a No. 16 seed is anything but the given it normally is.

Only once since the IHSA has gone to that format has a No. 1 seed lost its opening game to a team seeded as high as Benet.

Batavia was nearly involved in the second such shocker Tuesday night until Phil Albrecht's 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left saved the day.

Albrecht's shot was shades of Jack Scalcucci three years against Waubonsie Valley. That night Batavia also was in a regional opener, and Scalcucci nailed a 3 from a similar spot on the floor -- a little more toward the baseline -- at the buzzer that forced overtime. Scalcucci also provided the game-winner in OT that started Batavia on an upset run to the sectional championship.

Or shades of Albrecht himself, just last winter, when he buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat West Aurora at the Sears Centre.

"If it keeps on working we'll keep on going with it, but we'd like to play a little bit better," Batavia senior Nick Fruendt said. "But obviously at this time of year you've got to win any way you can."

And maybe the way Batavia won Tuesday -- while definitely hard on the ticker -- can be the kind of survive-and-advance type win that everyone can look back on after a long tournament run as the scare they needed to overcome.

Or maybe it just shows how ridiculously even and competitive this sectional is. It was like that everywhere you looked Tuesday night.

West Aurora needed a miraculous finish to beat Wheaton Warrenville South in a game the Blackhawks didn't lead until the first of two overtimes. Fruendt wasn't the only Northwestern recruit to have a big night, as John Shurna and his defending sectional champ Glenbard West Hilltoppers ousted No. 4 seed Wheaton North.

"Maybe tonight's game demonstrated that it is going to be a big challenge for anybody to get through this sectional," Benet coach Marty Gaughan said.

Gaughan was all class after the game, congratulating Albrecht and then giving Fruendt -- who he has known since Fruendt was in fourth grade -- a big hug.

"He's been a very close friend to my son, and for how long I've known him and from watching him grow up and see how great of a player he's become, it's a special thing to see him move on," said Gaughan, who stayed up until 1:15 a.m. and got up at 4:30 this morning watching tape of Batavia.

"I guess if you have to lose to anybody, losing to somebody you have respect for helps out a little bit."

Like Gaughan, Fruendt also couldn't stop thinking about this matchup and his final postseason -- even during school Tuesday.

"That's what you visualize in the classroom when some teacher is giving a lecture," said Fruendt, whose grades in the classroom are as good as his scoring average on the court.

"All day I was going crazy at school. I'm glad to get this one in and get the win."

Benet nearly matched Albrecht's 3 when Ryan Haggerty, who was unstoppable in the first half. That would have been quite a controversial finish to an outstanding high school game.

First, 1.4 seconds were added to the clock after Albrecht's 3. Then, even after Haggerty dropped the long pass, raced a couple steps to retrieve it, dribbled twice and put his 3 in the air -- all in 1.7 seconds -- that apparently was still going to count.

Alas, the shot bounced just off, ending a game with emotions high everywhere, from the players to the coaches to some of the fans in the stands.

Maybe that type of nail-biting win, being pushed by a well-coached, fundamentally-sound team like Benet, will do more good for Batavia than last year's regional opening cakewalk over West Chicago.

"It doesn't matter how we win as long as we keep going," Albrecht said. "They are a really good team, they are a lot better than the seed they got."

That sentiment was echoed by everyone from Batavia.

"I knew they were better than a 16 seed," Fruendt said.

Fruendt's friend Brian Gaughan, Benet's senior guard who nearly helped the Redwings engineer the upset, predicted good things for the Bulldogs going forward.

"Batavia could go deep, they've got a great team," Gaughan said. "They are really good at offense. If they stop guys on defense, they could beat anybody."

If the Bulldogs do go deep, just make sure to bring along whatever relaxation techniques help you handle stress. To survive this sectional, you'll need them.