In his time at Sacred Heart, Caleb Jordan has many major achievements including a state championship under his belt.
But even his latest achievement, Knights’ coach Pat Martin admits is pretty special as Caleb Jordan would pass 1,000 total points scored in his fabulous career on the way to a Sacred Heart 57-33 win over Beloit on Tuesday night.
While Jordan is certainly the top story tonight, he had lots of help from his teammates as Sacred Heart would earn a two-game lead over Beloit for the lead in the North Central Activities Association championship hunt.
The Knights would blitz Beloit in the opening period to set the tone as Sacred Heart scored the game’s first 10 points on their way to a 17-6 first quarter advantage.
Beloit’s Vincent Palen would heat up in the second quarter to keep Beloit from fully falling out of the game. Still, the Knights would be led by C. Jordan, Charlie Skidmore’s deep range 3-pointers and Trace Leners’ stellar play on both sides of the floor. Sacred Heart would continue to hold a double-digit lead in to halftime, at 31-20.
As good as the Knights’ were offensively in the first half, they were even better on the defensive side of the ball forcing several turnovers and keeping a Trojan offense–that usually averages 55 PPG–to well under its season average for the night.
In the second half, the Knight would never relinquish a double-digit lead as they would pull away from Beloit and cruise to their 34th consecutive league win in-a-row.
Beloit (8-5, 4-2 NCAA) struggled mightily to shoot the ball all night. The Trojans were led by Palen with 14 points as he was the only scorer to finish in double-figures.
Sacred Heart (9-3, 5-0 NCAA) never trailed on the night. The Knights had a balanced scoring attack as Skidmore led the way with 16 points and Jordan chipped in 14. Cole Elmore just missed out on double-figures with 9 points.
The Salina Ortho “Player of the Game,” is C. Jordan, who for all his time at Sacred Heart, coach Martin couldn’t remember another player he’s coached hitting the 1,000 point plateau. Sacred Heart stays in town this Friday as the Knights entertain Hutchinson-Trinity.
Beloit 51, SACRED HEART 37
Although Beloit would frustrate Sacred Heart inside of the paint on Tuesday night, Sacred Heart really played tough with one of the league’s best teams.
Even with some of the encouraging things to happen for the Knights, it was hard to overlook the obvious: 14 Beloit blocked shots–by far their most of the season.
That was life playing against two 6-foot tall Beloit post players as Sacred Heart quickly learned that nothing would come easy in the paint. Beloit’s Sydney Johnson and Shea Larson would swat several shots in the first period on the way to a commanding 18-3 lead after one.
The Knights heated up in the second quarter though. Behind Ally Coachran’s hot shooting, Sacred Heart would put the breaks on what appeared to be a Beloit blowout and trailed 30-18 at halftime.
A 16-7 3rd quarter would doom the Knights, though, as Beloit continued to dominate the paint and frustrate Sacred Heart’s bigs. Although Sacred Heart would end the game on a 10-0 run and force Beloit to end the game with many of their starters back in the game, the Knights would fall to a fourth place tie in the NCAA with Republic County.
Beloit (10-3, 5-1 NCAA) moves in to a tie with Russell for tops of the girls’ standings. Kalista Hubert paced the Trojans with 20 points, while Barrett chipped in 14.
Sacred Heart (3-9, 2-4 NCAA) saw their leading scorer, Anna Ivey go scoreless for the first time this year. Cochran scored 15 points to try and keep the Knights in it, but Beloit was too big and too good. Cochran finished as the game’s Salina Ortho “Player of the Game.”
Next up for Sacred Heart, the Knights host a tough double-header this Friday with Hutch-Trinity. Game times with the Celtics are set for 6/7:30 p.m. this Friday on FM 104.9.
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