Holy War finishes with electric buzzer-beater
Two years ago, the Holy War matchup of Kapaun Mt. Carmel and Bishop Carroll went into five overtimes. This year, the chance of an overtime diminished with a buzzer-beater from Carroll to secure the 52-50 win at the last second.
Being long-time rivals, emotions run high during any meeting between the two schools.
“Playing Kapaun is always fun,” senior Carson Lee said. “Every time we play them it’s a big game; we both bring our best against each other.”
Bringing its best is exactly what Kapaun did against the defending state champion.
The Crusaders got off to a hot start — taking the lead and running with it. Kapaun’s fast-paced offense was challenging to the Golden Eagles.
Kapaun senior guard Jack Barrier could not be stopped from scoring in the first half. Carroll’s defense had a hard time defending his range. Barrier finished with 16 points — 14 of which came in the first half.
Carroll trailed for most of the game until the fourth quarter when junior guard Tanner Mans hit a three to get the Golden Eagles the lead with 30 seconds left.
Kapaun tied the game up at 50-50 with 6.3 seconds remaining. After a missed three-point attempt, senior guard Carsen Pracht secured the offensive rebound for Carroll and put it back in for the game-winning basket.
As soon as Pracht’s basket went in, the gym erupted, and Carroll students stormed the court to celebrate.
“I felt the energy all night, but after the game-winning shot with everyone storming the court, it was amazing,” Pracht said. “We have a great fan group, especially during the Holy War.”
Bishop Carroll head coach Mike Domnick said that the Golden Eagle’s road to winning the state title last year is to be credited for the players keeping their composure when the game came down to the final play.
“They’re state champions from last year, so they’ve been through this a lot,” Domnick said. “We had a lot of close games last year. They kind of know what to do from that and we’ve worked on plays in practices for these kinds of situations.”
Senior guard Gunner Lynch agreed that the road to state prepared Carroll for that exact moment. He also credits the state-championship run to building an entire team of leaders.
Lynch said that instead of one player stepping up in those situations, every player on the court for the Golden Eagles finds a way to show leadership.
“We came together as a team, and I think that helped us win this game tonight,” Lynch said. “We have leadership on and off the court, that’s what helped us get that win.”
Although Carroll has many leaders, Domnick said that his team still needs to work on communicating, heading into next week when Carroll will face the undefeated Heights team.
“Our biggest thing right now is that we don’t talk very well, we miss that talking edge,” Domnick said. “That’s something that we’ve been working on during every game.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2019 at 11:13 PM.