A 22-point third quarter helped Henley (9-6) boys basketball reach their highest offensive output of the season in a 71-53 win over 5A Ashland (5-11) at the Hornets Nest Tuesday.
It’s the first time the Hornets have beaten a 5A opponent this season; they had previously lost road games at Redmond, Caldera and Ridgeview.
“We’ve got some continuity now with some really good practices,” Henley head coach Luke Hammond said. “The guys are feeling pretty good playing with each other and figuring some stuff out, so [there’s a] nice little bubble of momentum right now.”
The Hornets didn’t initially look headed for a great night offensively; they missed their first two shots and committed a turnover before Luke Bennett hit a left corner three 1:50 into the game to cut an early Grizzlies lead to 5-3. That turned out to be the start of a 13-0 run that lasted until the 2:28 mark of the first quarter, when Ashland began to answer with a 9-3 run to trim the deficit to 16-14 heading into the second.
Henley tightened up defensively in the second, holding the Grizzlies to seven points and climbing out to a 33-21 halftime lead. The third quarter was the highest-scoring period of the game for both teams and began with the Hornets extending their lead to 41-21 after scoring eight points in the first 1:52. Ashland spent the rest of the quarter trying to chip away and managed to draw within 13 when Azure McNamara buried a triple to make it 51-38 with 1:17 remaining, but they never got closer than that; Henley scored on their next two possessions to go up 55-39 heading into the fourth, where they led by as much as 23.
The Hornets’ 71-point outing broke a streak of seven games in which they were held to 50 or fewer. Their previous season high was set in their opening game: a 63-27 win over Etna (CA) at the Yreka Invitational Nov. 30.
“We’ve been pretty stagnant in the last few games, so we talked a lot about moving away from the basketball,” Hammond said. “Tonight it showed. We were getting cutters through the lanes all the time.”
Markus McCreadie had a monster game in the paint for Henley, finishing with 22 points, 15 rebounds and 2 assists. Luke Bennett scored all of his 17 points in the first three quarters (including three triples) and added 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Aiden Hayes also ended up in double figures with 10 points and 3 steals. Other contributors for the Hornets were Owen Harper with 8 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists; Chris Janney with 6 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds; Bryson Montag with 6 points; and Joe Janney with 2 points. Bennett was the only Hornets player to make a 3-pointer.
For Ashland, McNamara finished with 11 points, Jojo Harrower, Jaydan Hermogenes, and Freeman Rountree each had 10, Quillian Tourzan had 9, and Isaac Matsdorf had 3. The Grizzlies made seven 3-pointers, including four in the first quarter.
Henley faces defending 4A champion Cascade at 3 p.m. Saturday. The game will be played at Hidden Valley High School.
