Highland bid to upset Centralia falls short in sectional semifinal

After battling the top-seeded Centralia Orphan into overtime, the Highland Bulldogs looked to spring their biggest upset of the season on Tuesday night.

Centralia super senior guard Cruz Harlan foiled the Bulldogs’ plans.

Harlan, who was quiet for three quarters exploded for 18 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, helping drive the Orphans to a 60-52 overtime win in a Class 3A sectional semifinal at Rich Mason Gymnasium at Triad High School.

Centralia (31-2) faces the winner of Wednesday’s East St. Louis-Mt. Vernon semifinal for the sectional championship at Triad at 7 p.m. Friday.

It was a bittersweet finish for Highland (21-13), which knocked off MVC rival Mascoutah last Friday to win the Class 3A Freeburg Regional.

“That’s the way it goes,” Highland coach Deryl Cunningham said. “The guys executed well and we were really, really tired and give Centralia a lot of credit. They stepped up.”

In a back-and-forth first quarter, the Bulldogs pulled even with Central on a Grant Fleming bucket making it 9-9 with 12.8 seconds left. Centralia answered with a 3-point basket to take a 12-9 lead into the second quarter.

Centralia pushed its lead to 23-17 with 1:20 left in the second quarter on a lay-in and a Michael Organ triple.

Highland responded on Garrin Stone’s backdoor two, cutting the lead to 23-19 at the half. Stone paced Highland with 18 points.

An 8-0 run triggered by an Organ 3-pointer and capped by a Harlan trey pushed the Orphans’ lead to 33-25 midway through the third quarter.

Highland pulled ahead at the end of the quarter 36-35 on a desperation half-court buzzer-beating three-ball from Carter Holthaus.

Down four with 1:27 left in regulation, Highland rallied once more as Braxdon Decker drilled a trey and then dropped in a 12-foot jumper in the lane tying it 46-46 with just 4 seconds left to force overtime.

In the overtime period, Harlan took over as the Orphans outscored Highland 14-6 to move onto the sectional championship and end the Bulldogs’ playoff run.

“The guy that we knew that was the engine of their team, he really stepped up big, and it certainly hurt us down the stretch there,” Cunningham said.

A key factor that hurt Highland in the fourth quarter and overtime was not having senior standout guard Jake Ottensmeier, who went down with a twisted ankle on a drive to bucket early in the fourth quarter. Ottensmeier’s absence hurt the Bulldogs on both ends of the floor.

“Losing Jake in the fourth quarter who’s a key contributor to our team, losing him hurt us but I thought we had other guys step and respond well,” Cunningham said. “I thought we pushed and pushed and pushed them to the brink and I think just a couple more plays under some tough circumstances with us being fatigued, I think we would get over the hump.”

Despite the season-ending loss, Cunningham praised the strong all-out performance of his club.

“I’m very, very proud of our team, and our senior and our guys and our staff and everyone,” Cunningham said. “We absolutely have nothing to be ashamed of and I’m very proud of them.”

Organ added 15 points on 5 three-balls for Centralia.

Fleming poured in 14 points and Decker chipped in 13 points for Highland.