Prep boys basketball: Sacred Heart beats Green Ridge easily the 2nd time around

Including a flawless 11-0 mark by seniors Jared Dey, Caleb Morrison and Lakin Kehde, no current member of the Sacred Heart Gremlins has ever lost a game in the Kaysinger Conference Boys Basketball Tournament sponsored by W-K Chevrolet.

On Tuesday night, the Gremlins showed why the streak has persisted for so long.
Dey garnered a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds, Stefan Cox added a team-high 22 points and the Gremlins advanced to their fourth straight Kaysinger Conference championship game with a 72-33 rout of Green Ridge at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

The running-clock victory — their seventh of the year —  marked the 40th consecutive victory against league foes for the Gremlins (19-1), whose last setback was a 78-75 double-overtime loss to Cole Camp on Jan. 23, 2009.

Up next is the winner of Cole Camp and Tipton, which will try to end Sacred Heart’s run of three straight Kaysinger tournament titles on Saturday.

A fourth straight would mark the first time since Robert Farrington, who was inducted into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000 with 620 career wins, led Cole Camp to five straight from 1996-2000.

If Steve Goodwin gets the same effort on the boards from his team, he likes his chances of joining the elite company. For instance, along with Dey’s monster effort on the glass, Morrison and Cox added nine rebounds each against a Tigers squad missing the post presence of 6-foot-6 center Austin Story, who was absent for the contest.

“When we get one person rebounding, we’re all right,” Goodwin said. “When we get two people rebounding, we’re pretty good. When we get three people rebounding, I think we’re really good.”

Along with protecting the boards, the Gremlins had six players with multiple steals — led by Morrison with seven — as part of stifling defensive effort that forced 26 turnovers and held the Tigers to 30 percent shooting.

“Defense played really well,” Goodwin said. “When we take pride in our defense, we’re a pretty good team.”

It was a stark departure from last week’s effort from Green Ridge (13-7), which lost 77-71 on Feb. 2 at its house. In that contest, the Tigers jumped out to leads of 23-16 after the first quarter and 38-34 at halftime, but Sacred Heart clamped down and  outscored the Tigers 43-33 in the second half.

“We went on the road and they played us really good,” Goodwin said. “It wasn’t anything that was the matter with us. Give credit to Green Ridge; they played good. Tonight, we played good.”

That included a blazing start.

Led by Cox, who came out firing with 12 points in the opening five minutes, Sacred Heart hit its first seven shots en route to a 23-9 lead after the first quarter.

“I thought we got off to a good start,” Goodwin said. “We were focused. (Stefan) shot the ball really well. He’s streaky and has a lot of talent.”

On the shoulders of a seven-point effort from Dey and a 7-for-14 shooting performance in the second quarter — capping off a half where they shot 16 of 32 —  the Gremlins stretched the lead to 40-18 heading into the locker room.

Seven Gremlins scored in the third quarter to stretch the advantage to 59-29 entering the fourth quarter, when the running clock took effect.