Sacred Heart sweeps Southeast

Sacred Heart’s Grant Herrenbruck didn’t like what he saw or where he saw it from during the first half of Tuesday night’s game with Southeast of Saline. 

The Knight senior picked up two quick fouls in the opening minutes, then spent the rest of the half on the bench. 

“I can see where coach is coming from when he says it’s frustrating to watch us play,” Herrenbruck said. “ I got two fouls two minutes into the game and spent the rest of the half on the bench. 

“But that was also the freshest I’ve been the whole season going into the second half.  I was ready to play hard.” 

Herrenbruck and his Sacred Heart teammates were certainly ready to go once the second half began.  The Knights, who led by only four points at the break, quickly turned that into a double-digit lead and were never threatened in the fourth quarter in their 55-35 victory over the Trojans at the Sacred Heart gym. 

After going 8 of 26 from the field in the first half, the Knights hit 13 of their first 17 shots in the second half to pull away from the Trojans.  Herrenbruck, who did not get a shot in the first half, finished 5 for 5, including a pair of 3-pointers from the left wing and another just inside the 3-point line. 

“It’s been a pretty bitter taste the last couple of games,” Herrenbruck said. “ I’ve been the guy the other team lets sit on the 3-point line without anybody defending me. 

“It felt good to watch the ball go through the net tonight.” 

“We’ve been working with Grant a lot on his shot,” Sacred Heart coach Pat Martin said. “ He’s been overthinking it and then tonight he’s on the bench thinking ‘Here we go again.’ 

“We told him just to let it happen.  He’s capable of hitting those shots and tonight he did it.  If we get that kind of production from Grant, we’re going to be pretty good.” 

It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Knights, with opponents averaging 40.8 points a game in that streak.  Sacred Heart is now 11-3 overall, 7-0 in the North Central Activities Association. 

Southeast (6-7, 3-4) scored only two points in the second quarter but still trailed only 19-15 at halftime.  The Knights were up 25-19 in the third before scoring on their next seven possessions, including two 3-pointers from Charlie Skidmore and one from Herrenbruck in that stretch. 

Sacred Heart outscored the Trojans 21-10 in the third, with Skidmore scoring eight points, Herrenbruck seven and Cole Elmore six in that period. 

Southeast’s Hunter White had eight of his team’s 15 points in the first half, then added eight more in the third quarter to try to keep the Trojans close.  Southeast was as close as 11 points in the fourth quarter before another Herrenbruck 3-pointer made it 45-31 and started a 9-2 run. 

“I told our guys that I thought defensively we played very solid,” Southeast coach Jeff Wells said. “ But our offense continues to struggle.  Hunter White played as hard as he could but we just couldn’t get our offense going tonight.” 

“As long as the defense is there we’re always in the game,” Martin said. “ The second half we started knocking shots down and were able to pull away.” 

Skidmore led the Knights with 18 points, with Herrenbruck adding 12 and Elmore 11.  Elmore and Caleb Jordan had six rebounds each, while White led the Trojans with 18 points and seven rebounds. 

Sacred Heart girls 28

Southeast of Saline 24

In what would best be described as a game of runs, Sacred Heart outscored Southeast of Saline 13-1 over the game’s final seven minutes to rally for the league victory over their county rivals. 

The Knights improved to 4-10 overall, 3-4 in the North Central Activities Association and avenged a 59-43 loss to the Trojans earlier this month in Gypsum.  Southeast falls to 3-10, 1-6. 

“The seniors said they haven’t beaten Southeast since their seventh grade year,” Sacred Heart sophomore Ally Cochran said. “ Southeast played well and put up a fight, but it was great for us to finally get a win.” 

Sacred Heart trailed 23-15 after Southeast got a second-chance basket from Karis Calahan on the opening possession of the fourth quarter.  The Trojans scored only one more point the rest of the way. 

The Knights got buckets from Anna Ivey and Cochran to cut the lead in half, before Hannah Goetz scored on back-to-back possessions to tie the game with 3:15 to play. 

“We really worked as a team and got some good looks down low,” Cochran said. “ We didn’t have many turnovers and it finally all came together.” 

Sacred Heart took its first lead of the second half when Amber Palen scored in transition with 1:27 to play.  Goetz made both ends of a one-and-one with 38 seconds remaining, and Ivey hit the front end of a one-and-one to make it 28-23 with 20 seconds to play. 

The Trojans finally broke their second lengthy scoring drought with a Emily Meares free throw, but never had a shot to tie in those final 20 seconds. 

“I was really proud of how the girls hung in there,” Sacred Heart coach Arnold Schmidtberger said. “ They put in a lot of effort to come back.  They made some plays and got just enough at the end.” 

Sacred Heart led 8-0 after one quarter and was up 13-1 after a Cochran 3-pointer with 4:16 to play in the second quarter.  Southeast closed the half with 12 unanswered points to get the game tied, then extended that run with the first eight points of the third quarter to lead 21-13. 

Cochran finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, with Palen adding six points and 10 boards.  Goetz had all six of her points in the fourth quarter.  Chitty led the Trojans with 10 points and 11 rebounds. 

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