SHA Coach Suspended After Girls Basketball Team Wins 92-4

HAMDEN, CT — Sacred Heart Academy girls basketball coach Jason Kirck has been suspended for one game after his team beat Lyman Hall-Wallingford 92-4 on Monday night, according to GameTimeCT.com.

Sacred Heart held a 29-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and took a 56-0 lead into halftime. The Sharks increased the lead to 80-0 by the end of the third quarter.

Reports of the final score caused a stir on Twitter and around the Southern Connecticut Conference on Monday night.

The Record-Journal reported that SCC Commissioner Al Carbone received hundreds of text messages and phone calls regarding the final score.

Lyman Hall Athletic Director Steve Baker called Carbone and Sacred Heart Academy Athletic Director Raymond Degnan, who was at the game, to complain about how the game was handled, according to the Record-Journal.

Tom Lipka, who has been Lyman Hall’s coach for 19 years, told the Record-Journal he’s never experienced anything like that and said the coach has control over the final score.

Lipka told GameTimeCT that Sacred Heart fast-breaked the entire game and “showed no mercy throughout.”

Sacred Heart Academy President Sr. Sheila O’Neill released a statement Tuesday saying that the game doesn’t “align with our values or philosophies” and that the school is “deeply remorseful for the manner through with the outcome of the game was achieved.”

Sacred Heart, the third-ranked team in the state, improved to 4-0 by beating Hamden 42-39 on Thursday, with Kirck serving the one-game suspension. Hamden fell to 3-1 with the loss. The Sharks opened the season with an 83-48 victory over Stamford and also beat Shelton by a score of 80-37.

Lyman Hall is 0-5 with losses against Coginchaug, 43-31; Amity, 55-37; Sheehan, 72-38; and Middletown, 65-36, before the game against Sacred Heart. Lyman Hall is scheduled to play Jonathan Law on Monday in Milford.

Read more at GameTimeCT here and the Record-Journal here.