The Sacred Heart Knights boys basketball team made quick work of Bennington in the quarterfinal round of the 2A Ell-Saline sub-state, with a 76-28 win over the Bulldogs.
Sacred Heart’s Caleb Gilliland came out on fire Monday, as the Knights’ senior buried three first quarter 3-pointers, on his way to a 17 point period. Sacred Heart would make four 3’s in the quarter.
While the Knights had it going from the outside, Sacred Heart junior, Alex Disberger, owned the game in the interior. He kept the two Bennington bigs off of the glass, while he added 10 first quarter points.
As good as Sacred Heart played offensively in the first, it was all about their defense. In their first five possessions, Bennington turned it over five times, leading to easy Sacred Heart buckets. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs’ top scorer, Eli Lawson, was held to just three points in the first half.
After one, Sacred Heart led 38-4. The Knights stretched the lead to 54-7 at half, as their reserves played most of the second quarter and continued the great effort.
Bennington (6-13) was unable to get its guards going as its best 3-point shooter, Talan Pickering, was held scoreless against the Knights’ smothering defense. The Bulldogs end their year, but certainly have a bright future, as Curtis Pickering’s squad returns all five of their starters for 2021-2022.
Lawson led the way with 15 points for the Bulldogs.
Sacred Heart (15-3) has now one 12 straight games since starting out the year 3-3. The Knights advance on to the semi-finals in sub-state for the 10th straight season. Disberger led the team in rebounding yet again and poured in 14 points, while Kobe Douglas scored 11.
Meanwhile, the Nex-Tech Wireless “Player of the Game” for Sacred Heart is Gilliland, who scored 18 points–all in the first half–in the Knights win. Freshman, Evan Bogart won the H&R “Block of the Game.”
The Knights advance on in the postseason to rematch with the No. 3 seed in sub-state, Hutch-Trinity on Thursday in Brookville. The two teams faced off in Jan. with Sacred Heart winning in triple-overtime.
