The Guerin Catholic boys basketball team led from start to finish Friday, winning on the road at Lapel 53-43.
Clay Hepp dished out five assists during a 21-2 run, and his second 3-pointer and eight points in quarter paved the way for the Golden Eagles (4-4) to lead 28-10 at halftime.
“Neither team shot the ball well tonight, but Clay’s decision-making really got us off to a great start,” said Guerin Catholic coach Pete Smith. “Clay found Zach (Munson) on some early mismatches for buckets, and also made a couple nice steals.”
Guerin Catholic built its lead to 38-13 before the Bulldogs mounted a comeback, forcing eight GC turnovers after that. Lapel only connected on 15 of 52 shots in the contest, but was a sizzling 9-of-12 in the fourth quarter to make the final score a lot closer than the game actually was. Munson’s 16 points and game-high 11 rebounds included five points in the final stanza that thwarted the Dogs’ comeback hopes. Drew Thieme had all five of his points in the final period as well.
Hepp was the only Golden Eagle to shoot 50 percent from the field Friday night, which continues to be Smith’s teams’ struggle at this point of the season.
“We have to get out of the shooting funk we’ve been in; the sooner we do, the better,” Smith joked. “Some of that’s due to rushing some easy shots, and some of our shot selection hasn’t always good, too. But we played some good defense tonight, led by Kian (Sills) with five steals.” GC also dominated the boards, winning the rebounding battle 43-28.
It was the third straight win for GC when they’ve played at Lapel’s Dog House gymnasium Friday night. Overall the series now stands at 6-4 in favor of the Golden Eagles. The team will travel to Vincennes next weekend to play in the McDonald’s Holiday Hoops Classic. The eight team tourney starts on Friday, Dec. 29, and GC will see action at 4:30 p.m. against North Knox’s Warriors.
