Prep boys basketball: Dey, Cox lead Gremlins to 4th-straight Kaysinger tourney title

Forty-one, 27 and 16.

Sacred Heart boys basketball fans likely know what the first two numbers mean.

After beating Tipton 72-59 Saturday night to win the Kaysinger Conference Boys Basketball Tournament sponsored by W-K Chevrolet, Class 2’s third-ranked Gremlins have won 41 straight games against conference opponents. They also have 27 consecutive wins on their home floor.

Fans might not be aware of what 16 means, but the team knows.

Sacred Heart’s seniors improved to 16-0 all-time at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center after winning their fourth-straight Kaysinger tournament championship.

The Gremlins’ Class of 2012 is 12-0 in the Kaysinger tournament and 4-0 in the W-K Holiday Shootout.

“That senior class has never lost in this building,” Sacred Heart coach Steve Goodwin said. “Twice against California when they were freshmen and sophomores. That’s a big school, a lot bigger than us. We beat Conway (last year) and Santa Fe this year. They find a way, and I’m proud of them.”

Sacred Heart had to overcome foul trouble Saturday night to improve to 20-1 on the season.

Point guard Lakin Kehde drew two quick fouls in the first quarter, and post Caleb Morrison had two in the first half and two more in the third quarter. The 6-4 senior never got into the flow of the game, but Stefan Cox, Jared Dey and others picked up the slack.

“We know how to play in foul trouble,” Kehde said. “Everyone else around us was doing a good job of picking us up. Dey was playing really big inside and Cox hit big shots.”

Dey finished with a game-high 25 points and  had nine rebounds. He scored 14 second-half points and had seven rebounds after halftime, including five in the third quarter.

Cox scored 10 of his 21 points in the second half. He made three first-half 3-pointers to give the Gremlins a 33-27 halftime lead.

Dey’s 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the third quarter put Sacred Heart ahead 48-41, and Kehde’s 3-pointer in the first 30 seconds of the fourth extended the Gremlins’ lead to 51-43.

Goodwin credited Dey and Kehde with helping swing the momentum in the Gremlins’ favor.

Dey and Clint Spangler each made two free throws, and their team’s lead ballooned to 55-43, and the Cardinals never pared their deficit to single digits the rest of the way.

“I thought Clint Spangler and the bench played really well,” Goodwin said. “They gave us huge minutes. It’s a team game. Sometimes we forget that.”

The Gremlins went 11 of 17 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and ran quite a bit of time off the clock with an extremely patient offense.

Sacred Heart kept Tipton’s leading scorer, Ethan Koechner, in check in the first half, allowing the junior only six points in the opening two quarters.

Koechner rebounded in the second half to finish with a team-high 21 points.

Wade Wood (16 points) and Chaz Raymond (11) joined Koechner in double figures.

Tipton never trailed in the first quarter after Collin Nolting opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. The Gremlins tied the score twice but fell behind by five points on back-to-back putbacks by Koechner and Wood late in the quarter.

The Gremlins closed the deficit to 13-12 by the end of the quarter and took the lead for good in the second.

Morrison made one of two free throws to give Sacred Heart at 24-23 lead with 2:56 remaining before halftime.

Morrison finished with eight points.