Gabriel Sularski’s shot with 3.9 seconds left sends Lemont to the sectional finals

CHICAGO – The title of “instant classic” gets thrown around a lot. So often, in fact, that it almost loses its impact. It’s a title that should really only be handed out at the most appropriate of occasions.

Wednesday night’s Class 3A Brother Rice Sectional semifinal between Lemont and Marian Catholic was an appropriate occasion.

Gabriel Sularski showed why he’s the top junior recruit in the state by making a driving layup with 3.9 seconds left and the foul shot to give Lemont a 56-54 victory over the Spartans. The win sends Lemont to the sectional championship game Friday night against top seeded Brother Rice.

A late shot to give a team the lead is obviously very dramatic and worth calling a game “thrilling.” What made this game an instant classic, though, was what happened the first 31 minutes and 56.1 seconds.

Heck, what happened with 11 seconds to go would’ve made it a classic. Marian Catholic’s Zack Sharkey managed to make a falling down three-pointer to put the Spartans up 54-53.

Sularski, a Benet transfer with multiple Power Four offers, had the answer.

“I can’t even stop thinking about it,” Sularski said. “(Sharkey) hit that tough shot fading, we called timeout and we just trusted coach (Rick Runaas). When I came in during the summer he talked about the trust factor. He trusted me, I trusted my teammates, they gave me the ball and made the basket to win the ball game.”

Sularski finished with 28 points, but what may have been most impressive was his resiliency. The junior committed four turnovers in the first half with some bad missed shots on offense, including multiple air balls, before settling in in the fourth quarter.

“He had his ups and downs,” Runaas said. “He missed some shots and had a couple of turnovers, but he kept his head up and kept attacking. We designed a play at the end there to take a little pressure off of him by letting somebody else advance the ball and letting our sophomore (Zane Schneider) make a decision. He saw who was open and got it to Gabe who turned the corner and got to the rim.”

Early on with Sularski struggling to make shots from the field, Lemont was still in the game thanks to the efforts of Matas Gaidukevicius (13 points) and Shea Glotzbach (12 points).

More than in it, really. Lemont was up 12-7 after one quarter when Sharkey put up one of the best individual quarters any player has had this season. After not scoring at all in the opening period, Sharkey scored the Spartans' first 19 points of the second, outscoring Lemont 19-10 by himself.

Sularski made four consecutive free throws late in the half to give Lemont a 28-26 lead, but layups by Delan Davis and Tyler Jolly put Marian Catholic up 30-28 at the midway point.

Things seemed to flip back in Lemont’s favor in the second half. Sularski got going offensively while Sharkey made the first basket of the third quarter and didn’t score again the rest of the period. Marian Catholic was held to just five points in the third and Lemont entered the fourth with a 42-35 edge.

It was a nine-point deficit early in the fourth when the Spartans took a four-point edge after a 13-0 run, but an 8-1 run gave Lemont a 52-49 lead with just over a minute to go.

Two Jolley free throws cut it to 52-51 when Alanas Castillo hit one of two foul shots with 25 seconds left. Sharkey’s triple seemed to seal the game for Marian Catholic before Sularski sent Lemont to the finals just a year after losing in the regional tournament.

Sharkey finished with 32 points for Marian Catholic while Davis added 11.

Friday night’s sectional title game will be played at Brother Rice at 7 p.m. Gaidukevicius knows how tough a matchup the top seeded Crusaders are, but also what Lemont needs to do to win.

“We just have to stay composed,” he said. “We’re playing Brother Rice at Brother Rice. It’s going to be loud so we can’t let all the noise get to us. If we play like how we’ve been playing and stay consistent, we should be fine.”