LADUE – Jackson Freeman felt reluctant to shoot Monday, which was not a problem, since his Ladue teammates were scoring in bunches.
But when the senior guard watched De Smet storm back from a 17-point deficit to take the lead, he released his inhibitions – and a shot he will never forget.
Freeman sank the game-winning 3-pointer with just over a minute remaining, and Ladue survived a furious flurry on the final possession to defeat De Smet 48-47 in the Class 5 District 3 championship game Monday at Ladue.
Ladue (24-5), which won its seventh consecutive game, advanced to play Westminster (20-9) in a Class 5 quarterfinal at 5:45 p.m. Friday at Lindenwood University.
That matchup will serve as the middle game of a Hyland Arena tripleheader that begins with a Class 4 quarterfinal at 4 p.m. Friday between Vashon (22-7) and Lutheran St. Charles (14-15), and concludes with a Class 6 quarterfinal at 7:30 p.m. between Chaminade (21-8) and Troy (24-5).
The lead changed hands four times in the final five minutes as both teams made pressure shots down the stretch. When De Smet sophomore Riley Massey knocked down a 16-foot jumper, it reclaimed the lead for the Spartans, 46-45 with 2 minutes 20 seconds remaining.
Just over a minute later, Ladue worked the ball around the perimeter and Freeman drifted to the corner with his hands ready.
“I’d been hesitating a lot in the game, but I thought, ‘If I get it, I’m going to shoot it,” Freeman said. “Biggest shot of my career.”
Freeman’s swish gave Ladue the lead, but the Rams had to withstand a heart-stopping, final possession for De Smet that appeared to defy physics.
With 10 seconds remaining, De Smet senior Justin Duff drove to the hoop and released an off-balance shot that glanced off the iron. Putback attempts by Patrick Origliasso, Dillon Duff, and finally, a second try by Justin Duff, each teetered on the rim before the final buzzer.
And each rolled off.
“We did exactly what we wanted. We got to the rim and everybody crashed the glass,” De Smet coach Kent Williams said. “We had four looks at it, maybe rushed a few of them, didn’t gather and go up strong, but it’s tough when the clock is winding down.”
Ladue built an early lead on the strength of a 16-0, second quarter spurt that was spearheaded by its bench. After sophomore Trisiah Edwards drained a triple, he made a steal at midcourt and sent senior Jaylan Swinney away on a breakaway dunk that sent the home crowd into a frenzy.
“My role is to pressure the ball, and I got some steals and got us some easy points,” Edwards said.
Moments later, the 5-foot-6 Edwards scored a tough layup in traffic for a three-point play to give Ladue its largest lead at 30-13. Half of those points came from reserves Zion Hampton, Braylon Taylor, Piersson Calvert, Haydan Arnold and Edwards.
“Our bench has been great all year. This is one of the deeper teams I’ve had in my 15 years, and we feel confident to play 9 or 10 kids on any given night,” Ladue coach Chad Anderson said.
De Smet scored the final five points to slice the halftime deficit to 12, and used the intermission to regroup.
“I thought we let their run bother us. It got to 7, and I thought we rushed it, then it got to 10 and we rushed it and then it got to 13. The lead kept building and we were trying to hit homeruns instead of just chip away,” Williams said. “We just had to come out (in the second half) and chip away piece-by-piece.”
With help from its bench, De Smet (21-8) chiseled out a comeback.
Freshman D’Anthony McJames knocked down a 17-footer, then made a steal and found Origliasso for a wide-open layup to slice the deficit to six points.
A tough left-handed drive by sophomore Riley Massey resulted in a three-point play, and when De Smet’s all-time leader in three-pointers, Justin Duff, sank a right-wing triple, the Spartans had climbed all the way back to take a 42-40 lead.
Massey and Duff led De Smet with 15 points apiece.
“They move very well offensively. They’re running off screens and we’re chasing, and we had a few breakdowns defensively that gave them some wide open looks,” Anderson said.
But Ladue responded.
Swinney drained a three, and senior Jack Steinbach, who led the Rams with 15 points, followed with a strong drive to the rim as the Rams reclaimed the lead, 45-42.
But Massey scored on consecutive possessions for De Smet, putting the Spartans ahead by one point and setting the stage for Freeman’s biggest shot of his career.
“We were down one, and there was nothing to lose. I just pulled it, and it went in,” Freeman said.
Freeman and Steinbach were freshman on the last Ladue team to win a district title in 2020.
Both referenced a tough lesson learned during a loss to Kirkwood earlier this season – a game where Ladue squandered a 16-point fourth quarter lead – for how they withstood the furious De Smet comeback on Monday.
“We’ve been through this before where we’ve given up big leads, but now we know how to fight back and overcome it,” Freeman said.
Steinbach added, “We dug down and found a way to win.”
