BY ADAM COULTER
Salina Post Contributor
Clifton-Clyde girls 51, Sacred Heart 43
In the girls game, it was very much a back-and-forth contest throughout.
Sacred Heart led 5-2 early, but Clifton-Clyde answered to take a seven-point lead of 12-5. The Lady Eagles had a 17-10 advantage after the opening quarter.
After surrendering another basket and trailing 19-10 early in the second quarter, the Lady Knights went on a 13-1 run of their own to reclaim the lead making the score 23-20.
Clifton-Clyde answered to score the final four points of the quarter and take a 24-23 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
The Lady Eagles built on the 4-0 spurt to end the first half and added nine more unanswered points to take their biggest lead of 33-23.
The Lady Knights responded once again and tallied 13 of the game's next 15 points and led once more with a 36-35 score.
Clifton-Clyde scored to reclaim the lead and led 37-36 after three quarters.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Lady Eagles went on one more run that the Lady Knights ran out of time to answer.
In the end, Clifton-Clyde held off Sacred Heart to claim a 51-43 victory.
Avery Eshleman led Sacred Heart with 13 points. Adelyn Lee added 12 off the bench and Katie Weiss scored nine points.
Sacred Heart boys 60, Clifton-Clyde 57
In the second match-up of the night, the boys didn't disappoint in another nail-biter of a game.
Max Ehrlich led the charge for the Knights with 12 points in the opening quarter.
10 different players scored a total of 43 points as neither team was shy about getting up and down the floor. After a 19-19 tie, Sacred Heart scored the final five points to lead 24-19 heading into the second frame.
The scoring and pace slowed down in the second quarter, but the drama and emotion did not.
With the Knights up by two, Coy Steinbrock hit a three-pointer mid-quarter again giving the Eagles the lead. However, his body language and whatever was spoken was enough to be called for a technical foul. That allowed the Knights to tie the game with a free throw and reclaim the lead with the possession following the foul.
After a wild first half, though, the score was 35-35 heading to the intermission.
The teams traded baskets to start the second half as the score was tied at 37-37, 39-39, 41-41. Clifton-Clyde scored followed by Sacred Heart answering each time. In the lowest-scoring quarter of the game, the Eagles clung to a 45-44 lead heading into the final frame.
Clutch shooting in the fourth quarter by Max Ehrlich, Luca Adami off the bench, Michael Matteucci, and Will Tuttle also off the bench was enough to hold off the Eagles for a 60-57 opening night win.
In addition to Ehrlich's 18 points, Adami added 13 off the bench, including a big three-pointer in the fourth quarter. Matteucci scored 11 points.
Sacred Heart now turns its attention to the Irish Classic at Chapman next week. The Knights will face the Irish on Tuesday night with the girls tipoff at 6 pm and the boys to follow.
The games can be heard at salinapost.com beginning at 6:40.