Barrage from the arc sends Seneca past Roanoke-Benson

SENECA – There was a game during his Chicago Bulls career that Michael Jordan got so hot from the 3-point line, all he could do after his final make was shrug as he ran back down court.

In their crucial Tri-County Conference showdown with Roanoke-Benson on Friday night, one could almost see the Seneca Fighting Irish flashing a collective shrug to their fans. They were that good and that sizzling hot from the arc.

The Irish canned 10 3-pointers in the first half alone to seize control from the Rockets and finished with 14 for the game as they coasted to a 67-34, running-clock victory.

Paxton Giertz and Brady Sheedy each connected on five treys on their way to 19 and 14 points, respectively, and Brayden Simek nailed three on his way to 16 points as Seneca sank 52% (14 of 27) from long distance for the night, along the way claiming leads of 21-8, 34-13 and 44-18, the last at the half.

Defensively, the home team used its ballpress to force 17 R-B turnovers while committing just five of its own.

But it was the touch from outside that turned the tide early.

“We were shooting the lights out tonight,” said Sheedy, who drained a pair of 3s in each of the first two quarters. “It wasn’t really part of the game plan to shoot that many 3s. We were just shooting them like we always do, and they were going in. This was a personal best for me. I haven’t shot them that well all season. They felt really good tonight.

“And when that’s going well, it helps the rest of my game, too. It starts with the defense. That’s what gets me going, because I’m not thinking about my shot, but then they were going in, so we kept going.”

The red-hot night couldn’t have come at a better time.

It helped the 18-4 Irish move to 6-0 in the Tri-County and dropped the 7-12 Rockets to 4-2 in the league.

“We shoot a lot of 3s, but they don’t always go in like they did tonight. I can tell you we’ve missed a heck of a lot more than we’ve made,” Irish coach Russ Witte said. “Tonight it was nice to see everyone kind of knocking them down finally, because we do shoot them this way in practice. In games, we kinda go into a little funk and [start] worrying about them. Tonight, we shot them a lot freer.

“This is a game that we worried a little bit about because of how hard they play. Roanoke is a solid, aggressive team that was at 4-1 in the conference coming in, so it was nice to come out firing on all cylinders.”

Simek, Giertz and Sheedy all hit a 3 out of the gate as the hosts led 11-4, but then netted 23 of the next 30 points, a streak capped – of course – by back-to-back bombs from Sheedy and Simek.

A trey that was part of his team-best 10 points by the Rockets’ Javin Feucht broke the spell, but the hosts tossed in the final 10 points of the half to head to the locker room up 44-18.

Giertz fired in eight points in the third to widen the gap to 62-26, and a bucket by Zeb Maxwell to start the fourth gave Seneca its largest edge at 38 points, 64-26.

Ordinarily, Witte would have been more upset with his club’s 1-for-8 showing from the free-throw line, but with everything else going so well – including a 36-21 edge on the boards – it was a moot point.

“It was nice to come out and set the tone with our defense, forcing a lot of turnovers,” Witte said. “I thought our activity was extremely good tonight, and we were very active with our hands. It’s nice when the ballpress makes them run their offense 25-30 feet out instead of 15-20.”