Noah Mister did all he could to get Mount Carmel back to state.
On a night when points were hard to come by, the junior guard shot 5-for-11 from 3-point range and led all scorers with 22 points in a Class 3A supersectional at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena.
But the Caravan were stymied by St. Patrick’s sticky defense and lost 49-48.
St. Patrick (28-7) heads to state for the first time in program history, while Mount Carmel (29-6) looks to next season a year after finishing second in 3A.
Mister’s last 3-pointer came just before time expired after the Shamrocks went up by four with 6.8 seconds remaining.
“We fight to the end,” said Mister, who also had four assists. “That’s what we’re taught to do. We work for this all year.
“We came up short. But it’s fine, we’ll be back. It won’t happen again.”
Mount Carmel graduates three senior starters: Air Force recruit Grant Best, Cameron Thomas and Keith Jenkins.
Thomas finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Jenkins had seven points and 10 rebounds. Best had four points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“If you guys could have seen the emotion in the locker room and the amount of ‘thank you’s’ and ‘I love you’s’ — I think we’re doing something right because they’re buying in and they care,” Caravan coach Phil Segroves said.
“This is tough right now. But I just told them I’m proud of them because we feel we do it right at Mount Carmel. We’re not perfect. No one is. But I’m just proud of where we are.”
And optimistic about where the Caravan will be next season, Mister will lead a group of talented returners that also includes a pair of elite football recruits: 6-8 junior Claude Mpouma, who won a basketball state title last season at Phillips, and 6-1 guard Marshaun Thornton.
“You saw a glimpse of Marshaun Thornton, a freshman who holds 10 Division I football offers,” Segroves said. “He’s a great athlete, he’s just 15 years old.”
This near-miss will fuel Mister for next season.
“We made some small mistakes in the game,” he said. “In close games like that, there’s certain mistakes you can’t make and that’s my fault. I take that on, I take the blame for that. So it won’t happen again. We’ll be back.”
The Caravan lost despite outrebounding the Shamrocks 29-22 and making eight 3-pointers to St. Patrick’s one.
But the Shamrocks forced 16 turnovers and outscored the Caravan 12-4 from the foul line. St. Patrick also controlled the pace, holding the Caravan below 50 points for just the third time this season.
“They’re smart,” Segroves said. “That’s why coach (Mike) Bailey has been a head coach for 31 years. They packed that 1-3-1 (zone) in there and you know what? They make you be patient.
“We wanted to push the ball. We wanted to get the ball up the floor. And you can only do that on misses; on makes they can get back and set their defense. We tried to run some sets, we tried to run some basic zone offense. This is what they do. I give credit to them, but I’m also really proud of how hard our guys worked tonight, too.”
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