Boys Hoops: WC Henderson routs Great Valley
WEST CHESTER<< Saturday afternoon at Riechert Gymnasium the West Chester Henderson boys basketball team put on a clinic of how to play winning basketball. The host Warriors played a total all around strong game as they shot 31 for 49 from the field, only turned the ball over five times and held Great Valley to just 37 points with good defensive play. It all added up to a convincing 74-37 nonleague win over the Patriots.
Henderson (5-2) led from start to finish and opened things up in the second period when they went on a 10-0 run to take a 32-21 lead at halftime. Kmari Smith led alls corers with 26 points while Connor Fleet chipped in with 13 and Nyle Ralph-Beyer added nine for the Warriors. Noah Metrick led Great Valley (4-2) with 15 points, including three long three-balls.
“We knew they run a patient offense so the focus coming into the game was going to be defense,” Fleets said. “We wanted to speed them up and not let the get comfortable on offense. We took care of that and then on offense we just do what the coaches tell us and we did our thing pretty well today.”
With an 11 point lead at halftime after the 10-0 second period run, the Warriors came out and outscored the Patriots 42-16 in the second half. Smith drained two three-balls as did Andrew Delucia. Fleet and Ralph-Bayer both had treys and the Warriors trio of guards pretty much did what they wanted on the offensive end.
Early in the third period Fleet stole a Great Valley pas and went the length of the floor for a layup and a 34-21 Warriors advantage. After Smiths cored in tight to make it a 36-21 game, the Patriots missed a three-ball and Evan McFadden and Smith worked a pretty give and go and it was a 38-21 Warriors lead.
Great Valley shot just six for 28 from the field in the second half with only metric doing anything of note for the Patriots on the offensive end. After three periods, the Warriors had the game in hand with a 47-31 lead.
“We knew they like to run their offense and Great Valley has won a lot of games over the years running their offense,” West Chester Henderson coach Jason Ritter said. “And CJ (Coach Savage) does a real nice job with his kids. We just locked in anthem and at times we sped them up a little and that was to our advantage. We knew we had to bring our own energy to the gym on a Saturday afternoon game and the way you bring energy is by playing tough defense.”
The score got out of hand in the fourth period as the Warriors outscored the Patriots 27-6, in the fourth period. Kmari Smith was doing his thing driving to the basket and when McFadden scored inside the lane it was a 54-34, Henderson lead and Ritter cleared his bench for the final four minutes. Great Valley shot just two for 14 in the fourth period and turned the ball over 11 times for the game.
“We just did not execute on offense or defense today,” Great Valley coach CJ Savage said. “We turned the ball over too many times and they hit shots and we did not but we will take this game as a very good learning experience for where we are and where we want to be.”
WC Henderson 74, Great Valley 37.
GREAT VALLEY (37) Metrcik 6 0-0 15, T.Markowski 1 0-0 3, Stoll 0 0-0 0, Otterbien 2 0-0 5, McDaniel 0 0-0 0, Shorty 0 0-0 0, Woodard 3 0-2 8, Hegde 0 0-0 0, G.Marwoski 0 0-0 0, Ray 2 2-2 6. Totals 14 2-4 37.
WC HENDERSON (74) Bell 1 0-0 2, Ralph-Beyer 4 0-0 9,K. Smith 12 0-1 26, Fleet 6 0-0 13, J.Smith 2 -2 2 7, Surowiec 2 1-4 5, Delucia 2 0-0 6, Nelson 0 1-2 1, Dickerson 0 0-0 0, McFadden 2 1-5 5. Totals 31 5-14 74.
Great Valley 5 16 10 6-37
WC Henderson 11 21 15 27-74
3-point goals: Metrick 3, T.Markowski, Otterbien. Woodard 2, Ralph-Beyer, K.Smith 2, Fleet, J.Smith, Delucia 2.
