Murray’s clutch baskets down the stretch knock Henry Clay from Boys’ Sweet 16
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2022 Boys’ Sweet 16 coverage
Click below to read all of the coverage from Kentucky.com and the Lexington Herald-Leader during the Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament in Rupp Arena.
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Murray’s Grant Whitaker scored nine of his 20 points in the fourth quarter as the 1st Region’s Tigers made clutch shot after clutch shot late in a 57-53 win over Henry Clay on Thursday night in their first-round game of the UK Healthcare Boys’ Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
Murray led by as many as nine points in the first half, but Henry Clay rallied to lead by two going into the fourth quarter. The game became a possession-by-possession battle the rest of the way.
“I felt like our team was just battling back. We needed some buckets,” said Whitaker, who made shots to tie the game three times down the stretch before finally putting the Tigers into the lead 52-51 on a short, contested jumper with 2:13 to play. “I knew if our defense could stay solid I could get inside and just kind of create stuff.”
Henry Clay had two chances to take the lead on its next possession, but Whitaker blocked a shot by Konlin Brown and Kanye Henderson missed a runner after recovering a loose ball.
On their next possession, the Tigers’ Caleb Gill took the ball to the hole for just his fifth point of the game and a 54-51 lead with 1:04 to play.
“I just seen that I had a mismatch on my man,” Gill said. “The lane was wide open, so I just took it.”
Moments later, Henderson made one of two free throws to trim the Henry Clay deficit to 54-52, but the Blue Devils extended pressure on the ball defensively as Murray easily broke it for a Mason Grant layup off Trey Boggess’ assist. Murray led 56-52 with 40 seconds left. Henry Clay could not close the gap.
“In the first quarter, they kind of hit us in the mouth and I thought we responded pretty good in the second quarter and the third quarter,” Henry Clay Coach Daniel Brown said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win. … But hats off to Murray. I thought they executed down the stretch and made some shots, and that’s what you got to do these big games. We just weren’t able to make a few more than them.”
While Whitaker did most of his damage in the second half, Murray’s Boggess menaced Henry Clay in the first, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the first two periods, including a highlight reel steal and dunk midway through the first.
“This is what I dreamed of ever since we’ve been little kids,” Boggess said. “To come into Rupp Arena and just do what we did. Honestly, I didn’t really care about my self performance. I just wanted to win. And we did it. I don’t have any words right now.”
Henry Clay (27-9), the 11th Region champions, were led by seniors Aziel Blackwell and Kanye Henderson, who each scored 22 points. They were key to a 9-0 run that gave Henry Clay its biggest lead, 41-37 late in the third quarter.
Despite the loss, the friends and teammates put the season into perspective. They were part of Henry Clay’s first region championship since 2005 and brought the school to its 20th Boys’ Sweet 16.
“This one’s been special,” Blackwell said. “We’ve been doing this for three years. Always working out. We’re always grinding it out behind closed doors. … I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Murray (26-6) became the third All “A” Classic team to reach the Boys’ Sweet 16 quarterfinals along with Lyon County and Pikeville. Pikeville went on to win the midseason small school tournament state championship. Murray Coach Dior Curtis commented that he felt his team was lightly regarded coming into the tournament, but the results this week show small schools can compete with the bigger schools.
“We went to the All ‘A’ and lost in the quarterfinals to Pikeville — one of the teams that’s playing here and advancing,” Curtis said. “You know, we saw them and we feel like, ‘Man, if they are a state tournament team then we can be one, too.’”
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 10:42 PM.
