Clayton Garrison and his Chadwick teammates put themselves in rare company among their basketball playing cohorts by completing a double-header of sorts.
The Cardinals not only played two games within 24 hours over the weekend, they technically played two games in one day. What’s more, they won both, picking up a 44-42 victory against Lutheran North at the Queen City Shootout in Springfield and following up by netting a 61-20 triumph against Alpena, Arkansas, at the NorthArk Shootout in Harrison.
Chadwick tipped off at midnight at the Queen City Shootout and started at 8 at the NorthArk Shootout.
“I’m dead, my legs are gone. I'm sore and ready to take an ice-bath,” Garrison said after scoring 34 points in the win against Alpena.
The Cardinals survived and thrived, even without reaching for a Red Bull for a caffeine rush.
“That probably would have been a good idea,” guard Tristan Smith said. “I was thinking about it and it felt like I needed one at some point.”
The midnight start was among the Queen City Shootout’s continuous string of games from Friday through Saturday at Greenwood.
It certainly made for an unusual night of pre-game preparation for the Cardinals.
“We left at 7 and ate dinner and got to the gym at 10 to watch the game before us,” Smith said. “It was a long night. After we first went out for warmups, we came back in (the locker room) and had a break and I got tired. But once it got closer to game time, I got nervous and anxious and I felt like I woke up and was ready to play.”
Chadwick’s win against Lutheran North was one of the Cardinals’ best in recent years. North finished second in Class 3 last season and is ranked in the top 10 in Class 4 this season.
Smith related that during the course of the game he and his teammates were so focused on the action that they forgot it was well past their normal bed time.
“I thought I was going to be a lot more tired,” Smith said. “But my adrenaline got me pumped up that I didn't even think about it being midnight.”
“It didn't even feel like midnight, it felt like a normal game,” Garrison said.
Upon returning to Chadwick, the Cardinals actually had a hard time getting themselves settled down to go to sleep.
“I didn’t go to sleep until 3:30 or 4,” Garrison said. “After the win, I was so hyped up that it didn't feel like 4 in the morning.”
“I stayed up until 4:30 and woke up at 11:30, almost in the afternoon,” Smith said.
Chadwick still had enough in its gas tank to pull away from Alpena by employing full-court pressure at the start of the second half.
“I didn't expect (our energy) to be what it was, but I guess everyone got a good sleep," Garrison said. “We were hyped up and ready to win.”
Originally, Chadwick’s contest at the NorthArk Shootout was due to be the opening game at 2 p.m. Shootout organizers, once they became aware of Chadwick’s game at midnight, pushed the Cardinals back to the nightcap at 8.
“Thank goodness the coaches at NorthArk worked with us and bumped us back to the late game,” Chadwick coach Shaun Guerin said. “If we would have had to play at 2, we would have gone to bed at 4, got up at 10 and got on a bus and come down.”
Guerin was pleased how his team responded to the unusual circumstances.
“I challenged these guys and they prevailed,” Guerin said. “I was curious for the bus ride (to Harrison), if they were going to be quiet and sleeping. I didn't want that. I noticed everyone was chatting back and forth and listening to their music. They were still engaged.
“I like to challenge them. We've put a stretch of basketball in front of them that was challenging,” he added. “They handled it well. I'm super proud of them.”
The players, too, were happy with themselves, particularly after Chadwick lost at home to Niangua earlier in the week.
“I'm super proud,” Smith said. “We walked into the Lutheran North game thinking it was going to be bad. Nobody from our school felt like we had it in the bag. We worked hard and got the win.”
“Back-to-back games and in the same day, it was pretty rough,” Garrison said. “But it was fun. We loved it.”
