By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – The atmosphere at The Nest on Saturday, Jan. 10 was quite the cheerful one. The competition cheer squad at Guerin Catholic hosted close to 100 youth at a clinic and then entertained the crowd at halftime of each game.
On the court, the Guerin boys basketball team gave Heritage Christian more than they bargained for, trouncing the visiting Eagles, 68-51.
Heritage Christian scored first on a three-pointer to go up 3-0. Three straight baskets from Jake Grissom and a pair from Carter Murans put Guerin up 6-3, a lead they wouldn’t give back.
“A big focus of ours has been playing good basketball for 32 minutes,” said Guerin Catholic head coach Sam Gardner. “I don’t think we did that tonight. At the start of the season, we were playing good basketball for eight minutes and our results reflected that. Now, we’re closer to 16 minutes of good basketball. So, the goal by March is to be playing 32.”
The Golden Eagles moved fast and their pace was that much quicker than HC’s.
The second quarter was tighter with a slight GC edge at 16-15 for a halftime lead of 30-24.
The Eagles closed the gap in the third some, getting as close as down by four a couple of different times. The closest they got was cutting it to 40-38. But, that only fueled the fire for Guerin Catholic.
“I think one of the great things about this team this year is that we have multiple guys that can do multiple things,” added Gardner. “Carter [Murans] was going early, played a great first quarter. Jake [Grissom] got going in the middle periods and when Jake got into foul trouble and Carter got slowed down a little bit, they caught on to some of our sets.”
A couple of key field goals got Heritage Christian within two, but Hayden Rogers took it upon himself to lead the Golden Eagles.
Rogers scored the final six points of the third, including a buzzer-beating three just beyond the halfcourt stripe, pushing it back to an eight point lead at 46-38.
“Then it was Hayden’s turn to step up,” Gardner said. “There’s not a lot of selfishness on this team. We preach that and I think our guys really try to embody that when it’s your time, it might be your time.”
Guerin Catholic jumped to a double-digit lead just into the fourth. Murans swished a deep three from the left, followed by buckets from Will Bach and Rogers for a 53-40 score.
“Hayden [Rogers] gave great, great energy and I thought really turned the game around from a two-point game to the 17-point win. And that’s attributable a lot to him,” Gardner said of Rogers’ play.
Jack Linden grabbed an offensive board and put it in and followed it up taking a pass from Rogers for two straight scores and it was 57-42.
From that point, the Golden Eagles kept their defense up and staved off any comeback from Heritage Christian to beat the Eagles by 17.
Hayden Rogers led with a game-high 19 points and nine assists. Jake Grissom stayed solid with 17 and Carter Murans with 14.
Guerin Catholic (8-4) won the weekend. They also got a key Circle City Conference win at Bishop Chatard last Friday, 61-40.
The Golden Eagles stay home on Wednesday to play Crispus Attucks (5-4).