Knights Beat Taylorville in OT – Looking for Fourth Straight Rick McGraw Memorial Title

LITCHFIELD – The Triad Knights traveled just about 40 miles north on Interstate 55 Friday night to take on the Taylorville Tornadoes in the semifinals of the 2026 Rick McGraw Memorial Boys’ Basketball Invitational.

A slow and methodical game needed overtime to determine a winner, and it wound up being the Knights by a score of 35-30.

Triad advances to the tournament championship game for the fourth straight season. The last three years, Triad has faced Civic Memorial in the final and won every time.

This time around, they’ll face the Roxana Shells, who defeated Marquette Catholic 39-35 in the other semifinal. The predicted snowy weather forecast has moved the championship game all the way up to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 24.

In a game where field goals were few and far between, Triad pulled out its eighth straight win.

“You never know what you’ll get,” Triad head coach Jeff Guidry said postgame. “That was a great game plan by [Taylorville]. No shot clock here, obviously long possessions. Every offensive possession was critical for us.”

“But to be honest, we were talking about that this week. We needed a game like that,” Guidry continued. “I think that’s something you could potentially see in the post-season. We play so many games in the regular season with the shot clock, so we’ve got to get back to the mindset of being able to guard for longer than 30 seconds. In the long run, I think this game will help us.”

The 35-second shot clock will make its IHSA debut next season; however, many conferences across the state have been implementing the system in the 2025-26 season, preparing for the future. The Mississippi Valley Conference is one of those early adapters.

The Rick McGraw Memorial, however, had no shot clock.

And both teams reaped that reward.

Triad’s Mac Musgrave opened the game with a three-pointer before Taylorville got back-to-back baskets from Brock Brown and Maddex Havera to take the lead. The Knights went ahead 7-4 after the first quarter thanks to a bucket from Tyler Thompson and two free throws from Lucas Thompson.

The second quarter saw only three combined shots go in from the floor. Triad had two of them.

Taylorville’s Blake Ladage cut the deficit to 7-6 before another three-pointer from Musgrave and a basket from Nolan Keller to lead 12-6 at halftime.

Triad then went without a field goal in the third quarter, instead being outscored 8-2 as the Tornadoes tied the game up at 14 after three.

The Knights opened the fourth on a slow and steady 7-0 run. Tyler Thompson kicked things off with a basket and one followed by back-to-back scores from Justin Schrage and Keller to go ahead 21-14, forcing Taylorville into a timeout with 2:25 to go.

The Tornadoes closed the game on an 8-2 run to tie it at 22, forcing overtime.

Taylorville’s Malique Pearse opened the scoring in overtime to take control, but Lucas Thompson drilled a three at the other end that ended up giving his team the lead for good.

A triple from Pearse made it 29-27 with just under 30 seconds to go, but Tyler Thompson sealed it at the line, making six straight free throws down the stretch to keep the Tornadoes at bay.

In the end, it proved to be Lucas Thompson’s go-ahead three that lit the flame in OT.

“I figured eventually we’d hit a shot at some point, a big one,” Guidry said. “And that’s kind of Luke’s thing. He didn’t have his best game offensively, but he does step up and hit big shots. I knew he’d eventually get one.”

Granted, no one had a particularly good offensive game. It was both team’s lowest combined scoring game all season, and it’s not even close.

Tyler Thompson still led all scorers with 13 points. Lucas Thompson and Musgrave each scored seven points, and both Schrage and Keller scored four.

Pearce and Brown led the Tornadoes with 11 points apiece. Taylorville falls to 10-10 on the season.

Meanwhile, The Knights improve to 16-5 and get to play in the championship game of a tournament they’ve come to really enjoy.

“They’re good people up here. It’s always fun,” Guidry said. “This was our third game against Taylorville in this tournament, and they’ve all been classics.”

Last season saw a much high-scoring double overtime semifinal game that Triad won 89-81. Back in the 2019-20 season, Triad defeated Taylorville in the championship game 81-59.

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