LANARK – The Class 1A Eastland Regional semifinal between Newman and Eastland had everything a fan could want: two strong teams trading punches, two star players making big plays, and eight ties and 10 lead changes; it even went to overtime.

After Ayden Batten banked in an 18-foot jumper from the top of the key to force overtime, Marcus Williams split a pair of free throws to snap a tie in the final six seconds of overtime, and Newman pulled out a 58-57 win Wednesday night in Lanark.

“It was a great game. Both teams battled really hard,” Newman coach Ray Sharp said. “I just felt that we executed some stuff late, we got the shot and got lucky to bank one in at the end [of regulation]. I just felt we had some luck on our side tonight, and that was the biggest difference in a 1-point game between two really good teams.”

The final five minutes alone were worth the price of admission. After Eastland’s Carson Heckman split a pair of free throws to give the Cougars a 51-49 lead with 1:04 left in regulation, Newman’s Williams drove to the basket and scored in traffic to tie it up at 51 with 45 seconds to go. Eastland then ran off 42 seconds before Kellen Henze drove into a packed lane and flipped up a shot for a 53-51 lead with three seconds remaining.

“I never feel like we’re going to lose with Kellen Henze with the ball at the end of the game; he made an incredible play, even though all five guys are trying to stop him,” Eastland coach Tyler Zumdahl said. “It’s been incredible all year to watch him; nobody’s been able to stop him, even though everybody knows who he is.”

Henze wasn’t done yet, but more on that in a minute.

With 1.8 seconds on the clock, the Comets (23-9) came out of a timeout and threw a pass from their baseline into the front court, where Lucas Simpson leaped to catch it, then flipped a quick pass to Batten, who took one dribble and hoisted a shot just inside the 3-point line from the top of the key. It hit the backboard dead center and banked in, kicking off a wild celebration from the Newman bench, who thought he had just won the game with a 3.

“I did not call bank,” Batten said with a grin. “I did think it was a 3 at first, and then I thought it was a foul too, because everyone was coming out to mob me and I thought I had a chance to win it at the line. I got a bunch of water dumped on me, thought I hit the game-winner, but almost.”

“They just made a good play. We talked about trying to keep the ball in front of us. We had fouls to give, so we talked about that, but with the way they kind of caught it and got it right to a shooter, who got the shot off quickly, I’m not sure we had a chance to foul him,” Zumdahl said. “It was just teams making plays.”

After a brief discussion, the officials correctly called it a long 2, and the game went into overtime tied at 53.

“I saw he was on the line, but I thought maybe I could get the call,” Williams said with a sly smile. “It was an amazing shot, just a huge shot for us. It’s crazy, but at the very beginning of the season at the Oregon tournament, he missed a 3 kind of like that to win the game against Pecatonica, so now I can’t give him crap for that anymore.”

Newman won the tip on overtime, and Williams went right back to work, driving to the basket for a layup to give Newman its first lead since 47-45 with 3:57 left in regulation. After an empty possession for Eastland, the Comets ran some clock before Ethan Van Landuit took the ball down the lane for a layup and a 57-53 lead with 1:16 left.

“We knew it was going to be a close game coming in,” Van Landuit said. “They’ve got a lot of seniors, and we knew they wouldn’t go down without a fight. In the end there, it just came down to who could take care of the ball and execute, and we were able to do that.”

But the Cougars (24-9) still had some fight left in them. Henze zipped a pretty pass to Trevor Janssen for a layup on the next possession, then after Newman came up empty on its next trip, Henze again drove through four Comet defenders for the tying bucket with 34 seconds to go.

Newman burned some more clock, then Williams drove the baseline and was fouled with 5.8 seconds to go. He missed the first free throw, prompting an Eastland timeout, but came back to hit the second one for a 58-57 Newman lead.

“Nah, not at all,” said Van Landuit, when asked if there were any nerves on the bench during that timeout. “I knew he was going to hit it. I trust him. He’s been playing basketball his whole life, playing varsity for four years, I knew he wasn’t going to miss a shot like that.”

Eastland inbounded the ball to Henze, who tried to split a Newman trap and was fouled with 3.9 seconds to go. He went to the line for a 1-and-1, but missed the front end, and Van Landuit grabbed the rebound and muscled it away like the fullback he was this past fall.

“He’s their best player, one of the best shooters around. I thought he was going to make it, but fortunately for us, we were able to get the rebound and take home the victory,” Van Landuit said. “I knew right when I got it down they were going to be after it, so I held on to the ball as tight as I could.”

The Comets called a timeout, then inbounded the ball from their own baseline again. They threw the pass long again, and this time Batten out-leaped an Eastland defender to catch it, and he dribbled away before he could be fouled as time expired.

“This was a nail-biter for sure. We just executed late in the game when we needed to,” Batten said. “It’s pretty big to have so many guys make plays. It’s a different guy every night. We all have a lot of potential, and I think we’re going to make a deep run.”

Williams and Van Landuit both finished with 17 points and three rebounds, with Williams dishing three assists and nabbing five steals, and Van Landuit grabbing a pair of steals. Batten scored 10 points, Nolan Britt and Owen McBride each finished with five points, and Britt also dished five assists and nabbed four steals. Lucas Simpson chipped in for points, six rebounds and two steals for Newman, which will face Aquin in the 1A Eastland Regional championship game Friday night.

Henze was the star of the show, though. The Eastland senior had a double-double in the game’s first 11 minutes, and finished with 32 points, 20 rebounds, seven assists and two steals.

“He’s such a great player, and we just could not stop him – and when we did get them to miss their first shot, he’d get the rebound and put it back in,” Sharp said. “He’s just a tremendous player. We couldn’t stop him with 11 seconds to go [in regulation], we couldn’t stop him with 5 seconds to go [in overtime] and we foul him. You just really feel for him and that last free throw, because he had a great game and he should be really proud of how he and his team played tonight.”

Janssen and Andy Anderson both added 10 points, with Anderson also grabbing three rebounds and dishing two assists. And while there were a lot of tears in the Cougars locker room after the game, Henze was proud of his team in its final game – and for the entire season.

“It’s just been kind of all year like that. We’ve had our backs against the wall a lot,” he said. “We’ve been out with COVID; this morning, Carsen Heeren, one of our starters, gets appendicitis and has to have emergency surgery, so we were without him, and then Jaxson [Sturtevant] goes down [with an apparent concussion] and he couldn’t come back in. But that just kind of shows that next-man-up mentality that we have; no matter what the situation is, we’re going to give it our all.

“We just fought back, and I couldn’t be prouder of the way we played and put ourselves in position to win. We had two real chances to win, and it sucks that it came down to that shot, but I wouldn’t trade these guys for anything, and the season that we had.”

Eastland’s finale was its season in a nutshell. Newman grabbed a 10-2 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Williams, but Henze had three putbacks and assisted on baskets by Max McCullough and Sturtevant in a 15-3 run to give the Cougars a 17-13 lead with 5:49 left in the second quarter.

Batten nailed a 3 and Van Landuit scored off a post-to-post pass from Lucas Simpson for an 18-17 Newman lead, then Henze hit a pull-up jumper on the fast break after he stole the ball. Van Landuit scored inside again, then Henze hit Anderson on a back cut to give Eastland a 21-20 lead with 2:32 left in the half.

Van Landuit converted a three-point play, then Janssen scored inside to tie it at 23 before Batten buried a 3 with 1:29 left for a 26-23 Newman lead at the break – and that was with Williams missing the entire second quarter with two fouls.

“I know I got in foul trouble early and wasn’t a huge help in the first half, but the team did an amazing job,” Williams said. “Ayden really stepped up and came in at the end of the first half and played really well. Everybody played super well tonight.”

The Comets then came out hot to start the second half, as Van Landuit scored inside off a Williams assist, then McBride nailed a 3 before Van Landuit stole the ball in the lane, then got a pass from Britt as he trailed the play and drove in for a layup and a 33-23 Newman lead just 1:58 into the third quarter.

But Eastland battled back. Janssen scored a layup off a pretty pass from Anderson, then Anderson hit a 3 to cut it to 33-28. After McBride and Van Landuit scored inside for a 37-28 Newman lead, Henze and Anderson hit 3s in back-to-back possessions for Eastland, then Henze nailed another one to tie the game 37-37 with 2:16 left in the third.

A Henze putback gave Eastland a 39-37 lead, but Williams went coast-to-coast off a steal and converted a three-point play to give the Comets a 40-39 lead heading into the fourth.

“At halftime, that was the message, that first segment before the [third-quarter] mask timeout could really determine the game – and when we got down 10, it was not looking good,” Zumdahl said. “But the senior leadership on this team, and the resiliency, guys just stepped up and made plays, they really got in sync, got the ball where it needed to go, made shots, did the little things. It’s just one of those moments where everything comes together for a team, and as a coach you’re just happy to see it happen like that.”

Van Landuit drove to the hoop and gave Newman a 42-39 lead to open the final period, but Henze scored on a baseline drive, then hit two free throws for a 43-42 Eastland lead. Williams answered with a strong take to the hoop for a 44-43 Newman lead, then Anderson hit a pull-up jumper from the baseline for a 45-44 Eastland lead with 4:24 to go.

Williams split a pair of free throws, then Simpson stole a pass in the backcourt and went in for a layup and a 47-45 Newman lead with 3:57 to play in regulation. But Henze nailed yet another 3 for a 48-47 Eastland lead, then he zipped a pass to Janssen on the baseline for a 50-47 lead with 2:07 left.

Batten drove the baseline for a layup to cut it to 50-49 with 1:24 left, setting up the final sequence.

“It was a very good game. We just started executing late,” Williams said. “We sped up a little bit in that fourth quarter, but we just really started executing at the end. We like to score fast, but we really started getting those 1-minute possessions where we executed so very well in our flex, and we were either going to score or get fouled. We executed late, and played great defense, too.”