The Heritage Christian Academy Warriors were making history Monday night simply by playing in their first-ever 8th District tournament game. They added to the history of the evening by also picking up their first-ever 8th District tournament win, pulling away from Fort Campbell in the second half for a 54-38 win.
The Falcons had no answers at either end of the court for Heritage Christian’s Jason Leek. Leek finished the game with an amazing stat line, topped off by his 34 points, 21 of them coming in the second half when the game was decided.
Check out the rest of the stat line for the HCA junior. Leek had 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 steals, 1 block, 6 deflections.
Both teams started out the evening struggling on the offensive end. HCA managed to get enough done offensively to take a 10-6 lead after the opening quarter. The Warriors were just 4 of 13 from the field in the opening quarter, while the Falcons hit only 2 of 13.
Led by Tyreek Anthony, the Falcons battled back as the second quarter got underway. Anthony buried a couple of three-pointers as the Falcons tied the game on a couple of occasions at 12-12 and 14-14. Jason Leek then helped HCA close out the half with a 7-2 run to take a 21-16 lead into the break.
Fort Campbell closed the margin to 23-21 early in the third quarter, but then Jason Leek took over the game. With Leek providing the spark, the Warriors scored seven straight points to push the lead out to nine at 30-21. The Falcons would get no closer than five points the rest of the night.
With Leek scoring 11 points in the quarter, Heritage moved out to a 41-29 lead as the game headed into the final eight minutes.
With the margin at 10 points early in the fourth at 42-32, Heritage Christian delivered the knockout blow. Leek scored the first seven points of a 10-0 run as the Warriors roared out to a 52-32 lead and sent themselves on to the district semifinals on Wednesday night.
In addition to Leek’s incredible game, the Warriors got 8 points from Camden Higgins. Layton Giltner finished with 5 points and 5 rebounds.
Fort Campbell was led by Tyreek Anthony with 12 points. Eric Greene added 11 and Maurice Moore finished his high school basketball career with 10.
Shooting turned out to be a huge determining factor in the contest. Fort Campbell never found its shooting eye in the game, finishing 16 of 63 for the game. After shooting just 9 of 29 in the first half, the Warriors warmed up to shoot 13 of 25 in the second half.
The Falcons see their season end at 6-15.
The Warriors improve to 16-14 for the year and move on to Wednesday night’s semifinals and a date with the UHA Blazers. The win also guarantees that Heritage Christian will have a winning record in its first season as a full member of the KHSAA.
FCHS — 6 10 13 9 – 38
HCA — 10 11 20 13 – 54
Fort Campbell – Anthony 12, Greene 11, Moore 10, Smith 2, Wilson 2, Tate 1
Heritage Christian Academy – Leek 34, Higgins 8, Giltner 5, Simpson 3, Bolinger 2, Wells 2
