Henry Powers St. C. Past JM
Trending
MOUNDSVILLE -- St. Clairsville senior and Ohio State football commit Avery Henry (6-foot-6) posed several problems for John Marshall on Tuesday.
Inside, he scored a game-high 25 points, while drawing the defense in, which led to wide open shots on the perimeter for his teammates.
The Monarchs didn't back down but ultimately the Red Devils pulled away in the second half for a 92-78 win inside the Moundsville Field House.
"That's been our formula all year -- inside out," St. C. coach Ryan Clifford said. "He causes a lot of problems in there. When we throw it into him and he kicks it out, guys get stand-still shots. That's what happened (Tuesday). He was really efficient.
"We have learned that the more he touches the ball, the more open our other guys are going to be. Those guys are going to make shots. They are really good shooters."
Ryan McCort drained a trio of treys and finished with 24 points in the win, while Cole Thoburn hit four 3-pointers to finish with 17 points and Colin Oberdick added 15.
Brennan Sobutka was solid for the Monarchs as he turned in 22 points, along with 17 points from Cody Hartman.
Ty Rogers, Roman Gray and Braden Sobutka each amassed nine points for the Monarchs.
"I think the first 19 times Henry touched the ball he went to the foul line so that hurt us," JM coach Chad Clutter said. "We shot 14 free throws to their 36. That is huge to overcome. Also when the guards penetrated and we tried to help, they also floated it to him. They did a great job of going north and south on us early but we did a better job in the later parts of the game of controlling that."
On Henry's first bucket he was fouled and started the game with a three-point play but eight first-quarter points by Hartman kept the Monarchs within 22-21 after one.
In the second quarter it was the sharp-shooting of Thoburn that helped lift St. C. to a 48-43 halftime edge as he connected on three 3-pointers in the frame.
It wasn't until the end of the third when St. Clairsville began to pull away. The Red Devils ended the stanza on a 10-2 run, thanks to a pair of 3s by McCort, to take a 71-56 upper hand into the final frame and they never looked back.
"We changed our defense a little bit (in the third)," Clifford said. "We have to be better on the defensive end than we were (Tuesday). We'll take the win and get out of town but we were able to slow them down and we were really efficient on the offensive end."
Clutter was proud of the way his team scored and kept pace for most of the game.
"I thought both teams played extremely hard," Clutter said. "Both teams bodied and did the same types of defensive things. I'm proud of our guys. They proved they could score. We just have to keep people from going north and south on us."