The Sacred Heart Knight girls’ basketball team battled and led for much of the game, but in the end Bennington’s depth proved too much for SH to overcome.  The Knights led the entire first half of the contest, by as many as 9 points at one point, but wound up losing the game by that same margin.

Through the first 31 minutes of the game, Sacred Heart utilized only 6 players.  Meanwhile, the Bull Dogs got significant minutes from 9 players—7 of whom scored.

With about 2 minutes left in the third quarter, the game was tied. Shortly after the only tie of the evening other than the start of the game, Bennington took the lead and never looked back.

The game’s leading scorer and only player in double digits was Bennington junior Chloe Stanley who tallied 12 points.  Sophomore Kyla Kind chipped in with 9 points for the Bull Dogs.

Meanwhile, the Knights got 8 points apiece from junior Hannah Goetz and sophomore Ella Gotti and 6 more from junior Amber Palen.

Future looks bright

Sacred Heart ends their season with a 10-11 record after a .500 regular season and a .500 (6-6) year in the NCAA.

Knight Head Coach Arnold Schmidtberger sees good times ahead with all 9 players on his roster returning for the 2019/20 season.  Noting that this was the first time in many years that the Knights finished in the top half of the NCAA, Schmidtberger thinks Sacred Heart could contend for the league title next season.  Another goal for next year is to get at least one win in Sub-State which hasn’t happened in 11 seasons.

Next up for Bennington (now 13-7 on the season), a trip to Sterling to take on Inman (17-3) in the Sub-State semi-finals.

TEAM:                                    1Q:      2Q:      3Q:      4Q:      F:

Sacred Heart:              10        10        3         8         31

Bennington:                 6          9          11        14        40