COLUMBIA — Tristan Smith and his teammates gave coach Shawn Guerin a brief celebratory silent treatment Friday moments after Smith quieted Mizzou Arena for a split-second he’ll savor forever.
Smith swished a game-winning 3-point goal with :4.7 remaining to lift Chadwick past Green City 52-49 in a Class 1 semifinal.
After hitting the biggest shot in the Cardinals’ history, to this point anyway, Smith marveled how he was able to block out all noise, including a negative naysayer in his own mind.
“There’ was definitely part of me that was thinking, ‘Don’t shoot this dude, you don’t want to be the reason why you guys have to go into overtime,” Smith said. “But you’ve got to do what you got to do.
“I kind of went blank and shot,” the junior guard added. “I think the majority of shooters are going to agree with me on this that during a big shot like that when you know it’s going in, the entire gym goes silent. It’s only you, the ball and the goal.”
It surely helped Smith’s subconscious that he hadn’t forgotten the prophetic words teammate Clayton Garrison had passed along to him shortly before his game-winner.
“With about :15 left, Clayton tells me, ‘You’re going to win this game,” Smith said. “I was thinking, ‘He’s just saying that, that’s something you say to your teammates.’”
“I do remember saying that to him,” Garrison said. “He’s hit big shots all year. He’s one of the best shooters on our team, so I trust him. I knew he was going to hit that shot.”
Smith capped a Chadwick comeback that saw the Cardinals rally from a five-point, fourth quarter deficit, 46-41.
"What a game huh?” Guerin said. “We talked since the post-season started that were was going to be no easy path for us. I told them, ‘Everything is going to be tough for you the whole way.’ These kids keep finding ways to win. They’re fun to coach.
“Tristan hit the one that everyone is always going to remember,” he added. “But there were plays made throughout the game that kept us in the hunt.”
Chadwick’s defense held Green City to just one bucket over the final five minutes and forced the Gophers into 20 turnovers, including seven giveaways in the fourth quarter.
“We knew we were going to have to put pressure on them full-court.,” Guerin said. “We came up with some pressure on them and got some easy buckets to get us going. I think that would be where you would say the transition happened. That’s what got us over the hump. We got some hands on (passes) in the half-court trap that we have run since they were 5 years old.”
Smith’s game-winner was set up by a Cardinals steal out of their full-court press. With Grady Preston applying pressure at the top of the press, Mason Rogers picked off a Green City pass near mid-court. Rogers fed the ball to Garrison, who after a couple dribbles found Smith all alone along a wing at the 3-point line.
“I was trying to play defense like I had all year, play good defense and hope the next guy could get the steal,” Preston said.
“I knew when I came off the hand-off they were going to try and double team me because they figured I was going to shoot,” Garrison said. “I saw them help off and I saw Tristan flash out and he is a great shooter when I gave it to him, I knew he was going to hit it.”
“The next thing I know Grady plays amazing defense and gets a steal, Mason catches (the ball), looks for Clayton and gets it to him,” Smith said. “It all just worked out.”
Chadwick overcame a stretch of three-plus minutes in which Garrison was forced courtside, after he picked up his fourth foul with 1:01 remaining in the third quarter and the Cardinals down 42-36.
“We had struggled offensively. We didn’t have any momentum,” Guerin said. “There were certain times in this game we were slow and the offense wasn’t doing its job.”
“Nothing is scarier than when your best player gets in foul trouble,” Smith said. “Everybody in the entire gym was feeling just like I was, ‘Oy my gosh, here we go, Clayton is out.’ It was a horrible situation.”
Without Garrison, his supporting cast responded by promptly by scoring five straight points to make it 42-41, Smith hit a 3 and backup guard Creek Guerin netted a pair of free throws.
“They were still hitting on all cylinders,” Garrison said of his teammates. “They got steals and hit layups. I was proud of them.”
Garrison re-entered with 5:19 left and Chadwick trailing 46-41.
Garrison and Green City guard Xander Salas dominated the talk leading up to Final Four, and for good reason. In their teams’ Quarterfinal wins, Garrison had 25 points and Salas 37.
But they were in secondary roles Friday. Garrison finished with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting, nine rebounds and six steals. Salas had four points on 2-of-6 shooting, to go along with five assists and seven turnovers.
The Gophers took a hit when forward Asher Buggs-Tipton fouled out with 2:30 remaining. He exited with 21 points.
Chadwick received lifts from Prestin Kinyon and Creek Guerin. Kinyon supplied eight points, seven rebounds, three blocked shots and a pair of steals. Guerin made 5-of-6 free throws.
It all led up to Smith’s heroics. His 17-point outing included 7-of-10 shooting from the field. He was 3-of-3 on his 3s, although noting he didn’t call backboard prior to his first 3-point attempting banking in.
“I had to make up for the one I banged off the backboard at the beginning of the game,” Smith said. “The one at the end of the game was a makeup shot for that. That shot is something I’m going to tell my grandkids.”
The Cardinals instantly knew how they wanted to celebrate.
“We walked into the locker room after the game and it was complete silence,” Smith said. “We waited until Shawn started talking to us and the second he started talking, we all just tackled him. It was a dog pile.”
