New Life Academy rode a hot start to 62-46 win over Sacred Heart on Wednesday in the Class 1A boys state basketball quarterfinals at Williams Arena. Second-seeded New Life Academy jumped to a 20-3 lead in the first 9:24 of the game.
New Life Academy's size advantage helped dominate inside. The final numbers: a 49-25 rebound advantage, including 22-4 on the offensive end; 22-5 advantage in second chance points; and 36-22 advantage scoring in the paint.
"We had to clean the defensive rebounds," Sacred Heart coach Destry Sterkel said. "We couldn't let them get a bunch of offensive rebounds. Unfortunately, they had (22). That led to 20 or 22 points we needed to eliminate. All in all, I'm pretty proud of them. We are pretty undersized compared to them."
Unseeded Sacred Heart (27-5) scored eight straight to cut the deficit to nine with 4:39 left in the first half, but was not able to get any closer.
New Life Academy's Colter Stone made a putback with 3:02 left in the half to end the Sacred Heart streak. New Life Academy (25-5) then extended the lead back to 14 at halftime.
"It was huge. It made us all relax after that," New Life Academy senior Maxwell Briggs said. "Once he got that putback, it settled my nerves. I felt like we had the game was back in our control."
Erick Reader led New Life Academy with 14 points and 12 rebounds and Colton Hendricks had 11 points and six rebounds.
