More than 7,000 high school basketball fans filled SIU Arena Tuesday night with sections of red, purple, blue and orange to support their teams that battled hard to get there.

An overtime 57-54 win by Nokomis Redskins over the Gallatin County Hawks and Harrisburg’s Bulldogs outgunning the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes 77-66 highlighted the IHSA 1A and 2A Super-sectionals at the arena.

The audience watched an overtime of the ages in the first game, which featured the Nokomis Redskins (23-9) against the Gallatin County Hawks (27-3) in the IHSA 1A Super Sectionals matchup. Hawks center Andrew Drone connected one of his two free- throws after two minutes of scoreless play to start a 14-8 run for Gallatin County in the first quarter.

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The Redskins found scoring trouble on the massive 6-foot-11 senior, as he recorded three of his seven blocks in the first half. What the Redskins lacked in size, they made up for in speed as they scored 19 points off of 18 Gallatin turnovers. The Hawks’ offense was heavily reliant on three scorers. Drone, senior guard Daine Hish and senior forward Patrick Lowe combined for 51 of the team’s 54 points.

The three were the only Gallatin County players to score in the first half. Their 24 points gave them a lead with 2:20 left in the first half.

The Hawks then began to play conservatively. They eventually ran the clock down to 19.9 seconds on a single possession, only to have it end on a foul by Drone in the post.

Coach Robert “Radar” Patton said if given the chance to play the possession differently, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“There were two minutes 58 seconds when we started (running the clock) and we ran it down to about (20) seconds, and we had what I thought was a questionable foul call,” he said. “(If) that foul doesn’t occur and we hit that shot then we would look like Mike Kryzewski at Duke, but you know that didn’t happen so we didn’t.”

Drone made up for his mistake on the other end and blocked a shot with just seconds before the half expired.

In the second half, Drone continued his dominance in the post and grabbed five offensive rebounds and scoring a game-high 18 second half points. He ended the game with 25 points and seven rebounds.

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Drone opened the fourth quarter with a score on one end and a block on the other followed by a 6-1 run by Nokomis, thanks to two more fast-break scores by the Redskins. The lead was down to three with less than five minutes in the game. The next five minutes were back-and-forth until the end of regulation. Drone completed an and-one, and Redskin’s senior Devin Wright responded by hitting two free throws to end a

5-0 run by Nokomis to take the lead with 2:50 left in the game. The next two minutes had four separate lead changes, until 16.7 seconds remained on the clock, with the Redskins taking a 48-45 lead.

That was when Hawk’s senior guard Josh Belford hit his only basket of the night; a three- point bomb to tie the game at 48 with time running out. He played only four minutes in the game, and his basket was the only Drone, Lowe or Daine did not account for. Nokomis’ leading scorer senior Devon Wright said Belford’s shot was one of the luckiest he has ever seen.

“I tipped the ball when he shot it, and he banked it in,” Wright said. “He couldn’t do that again in a million times, but we got four extra minutes to play, and I’m glad we came back to win it.”

Nokomis opened up overtime with another steal leading to a fast-break score and scored again

on their next possession to extend the lead to 52- 48. Drone did his part to keep Gallaton County in the game, and grabbed two more offensive rebounds and scored four of their six overtime points. The Redskins had a chance to seal the game with 20.4 seconds left, but only hit one of their two free throws giving Gallaton County the final possession with the score 57-54. Hish took a three as the clock expired only to have it miss, securing the win for Nokomis.

Coach Patton said it was tough to get so far and lose.

“It’s frustrating (to be so close),” Patton said. “It is to me. I’d lie to you if I said it wasn’t, but it’s really frustrating for my seniors who have been working for four years. We were 18 seconds away and dreamed of going to Peoria and playing in a state tournament, but you know, it’s been a tremendous season, and they are wonderful kids.”

As the Hawks season draws to a close, the Redskins’ continues as they go to Peoria to face the winner of the Cissna Park, Mason City (Illini Central) matchup in the state semi- finals.

The Harrisburg Bulldogs and the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes battled for their spot in the state semi-finals as well in a game that featured two strong offenses.

Harrisburg started off the game on a 7-3 run through the first four minutes. They extended the lead to 21-16 at the first quarter’s end. The Wooden Shoes opened the second quarter on a 6-2 run to bring the Harrisburg lead to one point.

The Bulldogs followed with a 9-2 run of their own, thanks to the offense of Bulldog’s junior Eli Tabron-Scott. He hit five of six shot attempts in the first half while subbing for senior center and Southern Illinois University football commit Dakota Upchurch. Upchurch’s only score on the night would come on an and- one opportunity to start the second half, which extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 42-31 coming out of halftime.

Wooden Shoe’s senior guard Derek Smith did everything he could to keep the game within reach in the second half, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the second half. His effort helped bring the lead within 11 with 2:27 seconds left in the game, but it wasn’t enough as Bulldogs senior guard Tyler Smithpeters and Taborn-Scott combined for 23 of the Bulldog’s 36 second-half points. Taborn-Scott said they had to keep their momentum up in order to outscore their opponent.

“I’d actually say that this was one of the toughest games we had (this season),” Taborn- Scott said, “We haven’t had this good of competition in a while, so I am really excited (for next week). I’m ready to go, I think I’ll start practicing when I get back home tonight.”

He may be ready to play now, but Harrisburg will have to wait until Wednesday to find out who they will face in the state semi-finals. Their opponent will be the winner of the Riverton vs. St. Joseph (S.J.-Ogden) in the other half of the Super-Sectional bracket.