After erasing a 14-point second-half deficit before storming away in overtime Friday just to get to Monday’s IHSA Class 2A Pontiac Supersectional against Tolono Unity, the Bishop McNamara boys basketball team is a group that reached a school record for wins in a season and made the program’s deepest run in almost a decade due to its unrelenting refusal to lose.

“It’s just adversity,” Fightin’ Irish senior Karter Krutsinger said. “We’re conditioned enough to get up and down the court, and I think that’s just what the game plan was. They start throwing punches, you’ve got to protect yourself and throw some back.”

It was the Irish who threw the first several punches, taking early command behind a tenacious 2-3 matchup zone, but it was the Rockets who are state-bound, coming out of the gate red hot to start the second half to down the Irish 77-70.

“Throughout the postseason before every game we’ve talked about the teams that move on to the next play the fastest have the most success,” McNamara coach Adrian Provost said. “We just didn’t do that tonight. Not because they didn’t want to or any ill intention. They’re just kids, man. They’re just kids.”

The Rockets (33-2) are headed to state, where they’ll face Peoria Manual on Thursday, for the first time since 2002 despite trailing 15-6 early on and 31-30 at the half. They opened the third quarter with a quick bucket from Coleton Langendorf to grab a 32-31 lead they never relinquished, taking their first of two double-digit leads on a Tre Hoggard bucket that made it 48-38 just over halfway through the third to get enough cushion to withstand a few fourth-quarter Irish haymakers.

Hoggard, who had a game-high 22 points, credited coach Matt Franks and the Rockets of recent years for setting the standard this year’s group will take to Champaign.

“I think it falls on our alumni, for sure,” Hoggard said. “They set the tone, they set the standard, and we’ve just kept building on that since our freshman year. I think that’s been a really big part of our success.

“Our sophomore year our coach always said Champaign or bust to our senior class. He’s said it since then, and now we’re in Champaign. We’re going to fight our hearts out and go for our best finish.”

The Rockets were able to take command and keep it down the stretch thanks to 11 second-chance points over the final two frames. They out-rebounded the Irish 31-21, including 11 offensive rebounds.

Richard Darr gave the Irish momentum when his strong dunk with 3:18 left in the third cut the deficit to 60-59. But after Dane Eisenmenger’s old-fashioned three-point play a possession later made it a two-possession game again. The Rockets got back-to-back second-chance buckets, the second of which was a three-point play from Henry Tyler that came with an Irish technical foul that allowed Eisenmenger the chance to split another pair of free throws and put the Rockets right back in control at 71-61 with less than 90 seconds to go in the third.

“They had more grit than us tonight, and that just can’t happen,” Krutsinger said. “Rebounding was the only thing left on the board in the locker room (after the game).”

It was the final game for a seven-deep McNamara senior class, including all five starters. Coen Demack, who had the first six Irish points of the night, finished with a team-best 17. Krutsinger added 16, Darr added a dozen and Callaghan O’Connor had eight points and rebounds apiece.

It was also the last game for Provost, who earlier this season announced the 2025-26 campaign would be his last. The team went 29-6 to give Provost a career record of 226-182 over two stints that covered 14 years.

Through youth basketball and baseball alike, Provost has coached this senior class for well over a dozen different sports seasons, and couldn’t have picked a much better group to go out with.

“I started coaching some of these kids 11 years ago when I was 40 years old,” Provost said. “I’ve grown up a lot since then and they have too. I told them, ‘I’ve grown up with you guys.’

“We’ve had a lot of success together, we’ve failed together and I appreciate both of those things. You know it’s going to end at some point, but this is really hard. I’ve got nothing left. I just can’t do this anymore. ... We just finished 29-6. We could have finished 6-29 and I’m in the locker room I want to be in.”

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Bishop McNamara's Coen Demack and Callaghan O'Connor, left, look to the scoreboard as they leave the court following the Fightin' Irish's 77-70 loss to Tolono Unity in the IHSA Class 2A Pontiac Supersectional on Monday, March 9, 2026. (Tiffany Blanchette)