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Boys Basketball: Griffin Pils scores 40 as Libertyville rallies past Carmel
Carmel's Brandon Motzel (32) celebrates after hitting a three-pointer during the second quarter of Saturday evening's game at Libertyville High School. Libertyville beat Carmel in overtime, 83-76. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: January 21, 2012 11:24PM
For 29 minutes, it appeared Carmel Catholic would coast to victory in its non-conference rivalry game against host Libertyville.
Then, everything went haywire.
Trailing by 12 points with just over three minutes left to play, the Wildcats used a 19-7 run in the game’s final 3:20 — including a spectacular performance from Libertyville senior guard Griffin Pils — to rally and send the game to overtime.
Libertyville (12-6 overall) then outscored Carmel 12-5 in the extra period, capping an improbable 83-76 win. But it was the way they won that had fans from both sides buzzing afterward.
Pils scored a career high 40 points for Libertyville, which included some incredible late-game heroics. With Carmel ahead, 71-68, Corsairs sophomore guard Nickai Poyser (15 points) fouled Pils as he shot a desperation three with 2.8 seconds remaining.
Pils, who who also had 12 rebounds and a pair of blocks, calmly swished all three free throws to send the game to overtime. Pils (8-for-20 from the field) missed his first five shots of the game and scored 35 of his points after halftime. Remarkably, 20 of his points came in the final five minutes of regulation.
Pils added eight more in overtime, and finished 19-for-19 from the free throw line, which included a 17-for-17 mark from the charity stripe in the game’s final nine minutes of regulation and OT combined.
Even Pils was at a loss for words.
“I don’t know how to describe what I just did,” Pils said. “I just don’t know. I was trying to take what they gave me out there, and then that happened. I’ve never had a night like that.”
As good as Pils was, he did have help. Senior Ellis Matthews (19 points) banked in a go-ahead circus shot three to start overtime, which gave the Wildcats a 74-71 lead. Carmel tied the game on its next possession, when Ian Kristan responded with a three of his own, but Libertyville finished overtime on a 9-2 run to ice things.
Wildcats’ guard Anthony Mack sank one of two free throws with 32 seconds remaining in OT, which gave Libertyville a 79-74 edge. Carmel scored its final points of the game four seconds later, thanks to a layup by Billy Kirby, before Pils made his final four free throw attempts.
“The last few minutes of the game ... that was unbelievable,” Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. “I saw us not playing a lot of defense out there tonight, and it was absolutely destroying us.
“We were down 12 with what, just a few minutes to go, and we refused to lose. That was a great effort by our kids to close out the game.”
Senior Brandon Motzel scored a team-high 23 points for Carmel, and Kristan added 15 for the Corsairs (7-9).
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