NORMAL — Only 6.6 seconds were remaining in Peoria Notre Dame’s season. With the game tied, the Irish ran an inbounds play for freshman guard Emy Wardle, a play they usually ran for her sister, Mya Wardle.
Emy Wardle inbounded the ball before running off two screens. She caught the ball and drove left with her defender trailing and seconds ticking off the clock. Dribble. Dribble. Shot. Game.
Emy Wardle’s 18 points was the difference in the Irish’s 48-46 IHSA Class 2A state championship win over Nashville (33-4) on Saturday at Illinois State’s CEFCU Arena.
“Emy’s nickname is “Eazy-E,” and she’s just very calm and composed,” Bradley men’s basketball coach and father Brian Wardle told the Sun-Times. “She’s a freshman and naive out there. She may not even know the pressure of the moment, and she made a great play.”
The nickname originated from Emy Wardle’s dispassionate demeanor on the court. She’s not one to express herself. She said her father bestowed the nickname upon her, and the family occasionally listens to the rapper Eazy-E of NWA. Her father was correct in handing Emy that nickname.
She understood the magnitude of the championship game but acknowledged that it was just a regular game.
“I did not want to lose; none of us wanted to lose,” Emy Wardle said. “To go out with a win is the best feeling.”
Though Emy Wardle ran her sister’s usual play, the play call didn’t come from Irish coach Layne Langholf.
“I don’t think we’ve ever run that for her [Emy], but I’ll be honest, her big sister in the huddle said, ‘Get the ball to Emy,’” Langholf said. “That’s how much trust she has in her sister and how much trust we have in her. Then Emy went and got a bucket; that’s what she does in big spots.”
Emy Wardle is very relaxed on the court. She’s seemingly cruising down the court as she attacks the basket. Senior guard Mya Wardle — a two-time All-State performer — knew her sister could pull through for the Irish (34-4). This year would be the lone year the sisters would play together, and they made the most of it.
“I turned it over before, so I knew that Emy was hot and that it was going to go in for her because that’s what Emy does, she finishes,” said Mya Wardle, an Eastern Kentucky commit. “I trusted her fully, and there’s no one else that I would rather have seen have that much success than Emy.”
Brian Wardle — the fourth-leading scorer in Marquette history — was nervous in the stands. His hand was either over his mouth or chin as he surveyed the action.
When Emy Wardle drove to the basket for an and-one at the 4:35 mark of the fourth quarter, Brian lept to his feet and started effusively pointing his finger toward the ground, signaling the basket should count.
“I hate it,” Brian Wardle said of watching his daughters play. “I’m extremely nervous. It’s way worse being a dad than being a coach or a player, I’ll put it that way.”
But once the buzzer sounded, they all could erupt in joy as the Irish won the first state championship in Peoria Notre Dame’s girls athletics history.
“We knew we could do something special,” Mya Wardle said. “This win shows how bright the future is for all these girls.”
Kyle Williams is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
