Just 1.8 seconds separated the Ladue Rams boy's basketball team from the semi-finals of the MICDS Holiday Invitational Basketball Tournament. The time proved to be enough for No. 2 Parkway South as Junior Mark Waller scored as the buzzer sounded and moved Parkway South to the next round.
The Rams held the lead for the majority of the game. Undefeated Parkway South (8-0) took their first fourth-quarter lead with 1:07 left to go in regulation on a putback by Waller, who finished with 16 points all coming in the second half. Ladue answered back immediately as senior Mitch Montaldo laid one in to recapture the lead. Parkway South then got another putback on the offensive boards, this time by Sam Jaouni, to move ahead. Ladue then called timeout with under 30 seconds left. Out of the time out senior Will Childs-Klein was fouled with exactly eight seconds remaining. In a tense moment the big man showed great poise sinking them both and regaining the one point lead. Childs-Klein then blocked the next Parkway South shot, sending the ball out of bounds out underneath the Ladue basket with 1.8 seconds to play.
"Our big kid blocked the ball, it went through his hands went and out of bounds," Ladue head coach Chad Anderson said. "The ball could have bounced a different way we could have got it and won the game."
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The Rams (4-3) were led in scoring by Montaldo who had 23 points. Freshman Cornell Johnston had 11 and Childs-Klein finished with eight. Ladue will play Whitfield at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday and still have a shot to finish as high as fifth in the tournament.
"We felt like we had a great chance of coming in here and making some noise," Anderson said. "We just came up short tonight."