By LARRY MORITZ

Special to The Hays Daily News

BENNINGTON -- Jordan Toogood may have saved his best game for the biggest game of the season.

The same could be said for his Sacred Heart teammates.

Toogood had 12 of his season-high 27 points in a pivotal fourth quarter when the Knights pulled away from a scrappy Stockton ball club for a 63-49 victory in the Class 2A sub-state championship game Saturday night at Bennington High School.

Sacred Heart (19-4) used an 18-5 run to start the fourth quarter to finally get some breathing room from the Tigers, who finished their season at 17-6. The Knights will now get some time to catch their breath before starting play Thursday at the 2A state tournament at Bramlage Coliseum.

It will mark Sacred Heart's third consecutive state tourney appearance, after losing in the opening round each of the past two years.

"This is so crazy," said Toogood, one of five Sacred Heart seniors, including four starters. "This is huge for us because the past two years we've lost in the first round, and now we get to go back. We want it really bad this year."

"One thing this team has is a lot of experience," said Sacred Heart senior Mark Riordan, who had 17 points and 10 rebounds. "All the starters played in our sub-state the last two years, and I think that helped down the stretch."

With an up-and-down tempo through the first three quarters, it may have also helped that Sacred Heart coach Pat Martin went deep into his bench early, using 11 players in the first half.

The Knight starters were still fresh at the start of the fourth quarter, when they opened the period with a 10-0 run to stretch a three-point lead to 51-38.

"The kids followed the game plan to a T," Martin said. "All 12 contributed and the game plan was to wear them down a little bit, and in the fourth quarter that was the difference."

"Maybe some experience in games like this was the difference in the fourth quarter," said Stockton coach Adam North. "This is Sacred Heart's third year in the finals.

"We just missed some shots we hit last night (in a semifinal win over Plainville), and it came down to some points in transition."

Senior Josh Windholz played less than four minutes of the first three quarters with foul trouble, but his assist on a Toogood basket got the fourth-quarter run started. Windholz scored the next three points, including a transition basket off a Zach Littell steal near midcourt, to make it 46-38.

Toogood had his team's next five points, and when Jeff Picazo scored on an inbounds play and Toogood dropped in a second-chance bucket, the lead was 55-40 midway through the final period.

"I think going into a 1-3-1 defense changed the momentum," said Toogood, who also had 13 rebounds. "We got stops on defense and layups at the other end, then dug them a big hole, and they couldn't get out of it."

"We wanted to come out and make the first run in the fourth quarter, and that's exactly what we did," Riordan said. "We were defending the outside shot, we were clearing the glass, and Zach was feeding Josh and Jordan like crazy."

The lead eventually grew to 16 with baskets from Toogood and Littell, as Stockton was never able to cut the lead below 12 the rest of the way.

"In the past we've gotten leads and played not to lose," Martin said. "I told them in a timeout to keep attacking, and we got a lot of easy layups by doing that."

The Tigers, after falling behind 12-4 in the early going, quickly got back into the game and led by as many as four points in the second quarter. The Knights were up by one at halftime and never let Stockton go in front in the second half, but couldn't shake the Tigers through the third quarter.

"I think our guys had confidence they could play with this team tonight," North said. "They handled Sacred Heart's early runs and battled back.

"We had a really special group of seniors, but you've got to hand it to Sacred Heart. They've got a pretty good team, too."

Stockton's Scott Voss had 11 of his 13 points in the second half and also led the Tigers with 11 rebounds. Austin Smith had 12 points, while 6-foot-11 senior Sage Penner had eight points and 10 rebounds.

Osborne girls 51, Rock Hills 49

Osborne rallied from a five-point deficit in the final 1:40, then got the winning shot on a layup from junior Jordyn Sturgeon as the final buzzer sounded to defeat Rock Hills in the girls 2A sub-state title game Saturday night.

Sturgeon had eight of her team's final 10 points, including a steal and layup with 48 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs a 49-48 lead. Rock Hills, which outscored Osborne 16-3 at the free throws line, got 1-of-2 free throws from Kayla Sholtz to get the game tied with 34 seconds to play.

Osborne held for the last shot and worked the ball around to Sturgeon on the left side of the lane. She drove to the basket and let the shot go at the last possible second, sending her team to next week's 2A state tourney in Manhattan.

Osborne (19-4) was led by Sturgeon with 18 points and Katie Wolters with 12. Rock Hills (15-8) got 14 points from Bethany Jeffery and 11 from Hillary Callaway.