Henry Clay boys’ basketball on the mend and in the hunt for 42nd District’s top seed
The last three weeks have largely been ones to forget for the Henry Clay boys’ basketball team.
After a 10-0 start through mid-December, the Blue Devils (12-3) lost three of the next four, including a stint where a non-COVID-19 illness swept through the roster leaving them short of players to practice and short of senior starter Aziel Blackwell for their Jan. 4 home game against Bryan Station, a 68-54 loss.
Blackwell returned to the lineup Tuesday night at Frederick Douglass, however, and the Blue Devils regained a bit of their form in a 59-53 victory.
“It’s big. We had to fight a lot just to come back from sickness and injuries,” said Blackwell, who scored a team-high 18 points Tuesday.
The win marked the halfway point in Henry Clay’s 42nd District schedule and kept it in the hunt for the top seed in the district tournament with a 3-1 district record, second to Bryan Station’s 4-1 mark. The Blue Devils swept Douglass and split with the Defenders. They must play both Scott County and Sayre twice before season’s end. in addition to the rest of their schedule.
“Hopefully we keep everybody healthy moving forward. I like what we did tonight,” Henry Clay Coach Daniel Brown said. “We didn’t play the best offensively, but we played good enough defensively to give ourselves a chance to win.”
The Blue Devils had seven steals and four blocks to help force 18 Frederick Douglass turnovers. That helped Henry Clay offset being outrebounded 48-24. Douglass had a whopping 20 offensive boards. And Henry Clay didn’t help itself at the free throw line, either, making just 11 of 23 attempts.
“I look at that and we still won. I have to brag on something, so I have to start bragging on the defense, right?” Brown joked.
Henry Clay also made eight of its 18 three-point attempts with key threes from Konlin Brown and Kanye Henderson helping fend off a Broncos rally in the second half. Brown scored 17 points with three three-pointers, Henderson had 14 points with two threes.
“It just shows how much trust we have in each other,” Blackwell said. “It shows how we can share the ball and get everything done.”
In addition to Blackwell’s return as a fifth-year senior, Henry Clay has been bolstered by the addition of Brenden Wicker, a 6-foot-7 senior forward transfer from Georgia. Wicker leads the team in rebounds with 8.2 per game and gives the Blue Devils some size to deal with the likes of Douglass’s Tyson Barrett, a 6-7 junior. Wicker’s stats were modest Tuesday, but that didn’t bother his coach.
“He’s a really good defensive player,” Brown said. “He gives us whatever we need. We’re lucky to have him in the back of the lineup. It allows them guards to get after ‘em knowing you’ve got somebody in the back that can clean it up for you.”
The Broncos (7-10) trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half but closed the gap to two points twice in the second half despite being without starting point guard Kai Simpson for a third straight game due to illness. Tylon Webb led the Broncos with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Barrett added 16 points and nine boards.
Douglass dropped to 1-4 in district play, but with four players averaging in double-figures scoring — Barrett, 15.3 ppg; Simpson, 14.1 ppg, Armelo Boone, 10.4 ppg and Webb, 10.2 — the Broncos could be a sleeping giant come tournament time as they have been in years past. Douglass stunned a top-ranked Henry Clay team in 2020 as the No. 4 seed.
“We like where we’re at,” Henry Clay’s Brown said. “This district is always tough. We’re winning games and trying to get a good seed and just trying to get better every day. We’re excited to be 3-1 but that can change in a week.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 8:16 AM.
