Guidry returned to his roots and guided his Knights to a grind-it-out 50-46 victory over Ladue, where he was an assistant coach for five years before coming to Triad in 2019.

“It was great,” Guidry said of being back in familiar haunts and matching wits with his mentor, Rams coach Chad Anderson. “There’s a lot of great people (here) and I made a lot of great friends. It was good to come back.”

Especially after the Knights (19-5) left with a win — their ninth in a row since falling 45-44 to McCluer North in the consolation final of the Collinsville Holiday Classic.

The Rams (14-4) made it difficult as they dug in on defense in the second half. But Triad came up with some clutch plays down the stretch and made all six of its free throws to hold on by a thread and end Ladue’s seven-game winning streak.

“Coach just told us to come out here and play hard. That’s it,” said Triad sophomore Drew Winslow, who along with freshman Tyler Thompson led the Knights with 13 points. “It is cool (to win) since he coached here. It’s a nice feeling. He wanted us to make him proud. I think we did.”

Anderson wasn’t surprised to see the game play out the way it did.

“(Guidry) knows what we do. I know what he does,” Anderson said. “It really came down to which team made plays when they needed to make them. I felt like they made a few more than us.”

Triad trailed just once, falling behind 37-36 when senior Jack Steinbach culminated a 6-0 run with a three-point play with 5 minutes and 11 seconds to play in the game.

The Knights answered quickly as senior Jake Stewart capitalized on a turnover with a layup that jump-started an 8-0 uprising to put Triad on top 44-37 with 1:03 left.

But Ladue junior Dwayne Foley popped a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 44-40 with 52 seconds to play. Two free throws by Stewart made it 46-40, but the Rams answered quickly when junior Sam Goellner scored in the lane to make it 46-42.

Triad then beat full-court pressure, resulting in an easy layup by Winslow to make it 48-42. Two free throws by Stewart with 12 seconds remaining settled the matter.

“They played extremely fast and extremely physical,” Guidry said of the Rams. “They were probably a little more physical than we anticipated. But like I told the guys, it’s not like we haven’t seen this before. We’ve played a lot of teams like this. So I think that helped us respond down the stretch and do what we had to do to make the plays we needed.”

Triad led 13-9 after one quarter and 25-21 at halftime as it was able to control the tempo and limit its turnovers to three. But the Rams left little to no room for the Knights’ offense to operate in the second half, forcing them into 11 turnovers and holding them to two baskets in the third quarter.

“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” Anderson said. “They’re a good team, well-coached. It was a lot of fun (facing Guidry). I wish we could have come out on top. I felt like we played on our heels defensively the first couple of quarters. We didn’t shoot it well, either, which didn’t help. That’s a bad recipe. But we hung in there. We picked up the pressure. We had wanted to do that for four quarters.”

Steinbach was sensational for Ladue as he went 7-for-12 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. The Rams, however, had no other consistent threat. Senior Jaylen Swinney finished with eight points, but all of them came in the first half. Foley had seven points before fouling out with 50 seconds to play.

“(Steinbach) has been pretty consistent all year,” Anderson said. “Most games, we have a couple of guys around him that can contribute offensively. Tonight, we kind of struggled. Hopefully, after this loss, we’ll get on a roll again and learn from it. If I’m going to lose to somebody, it would be (Guidry). Jeff’s one of my good friends and he’s done a good job building that program the last four years.”

Triad shot 53% (17-for-32) and was 14-for-19 from the line. Ladue shot 40% (16-for-40), but was just 6-for-21 from beyond the arc (29%).

“I feel like this was a really big game to us, coming over here and showing them how Illinois plays,” Winslow said. “Our guards really did well to adjust to their pressure. You’re glad when you get (baskets), but it’s really rough getting knocked around. In basketball, you’ve got to endure it. We’ve seen every play style we can see.”