The semifinals of a regional tournament is not exactly the place where you want to have your worst shooting game of the season. But that is exactly what happened to University Heights Academy in their semifinal game Monday night at Hopkinsville High School.
Henderson County took the lead early and never looked back as the Colonels steamrolled their way into the 2nd Region championship game with an impressive 69-35 win over UHA in Monday night’s first semifinal game.
The Blazers looked to be a bit tight from the outset in this one. In a foretelling of the rest of the night, with Henderson County playing a 2-3 zone on defense, UHA’s first few shots were off the mark, and the Blazers made a couple of early unforced errors. That combination allowed Henderson County to jump out to a quick 7-0 lead. The Blazers finally got on the board when Kyler Baker made one of two free throws with 4:53 left in the opening quarter to make it 7-1.
After baskets inside the paint from Elijah Suggs and Lacon McKinney gave the Colonels an 11-3 lead, UHA coach Terry Hayes took an early timeout. On the way to the benches, McKinney was called for a technical foul. However, the Blazers could convert only one of the two free throws to trim the lead to 11-4.
As the quarter rolled on, things went from bad to worse for University Heights. Blazer shots refused to fell and Henderson County was owning the glass. Led by the inside play of Elijah Suggs and Yusef Kendrick, Henderson County ripped off 10 in a row to take a 21-4 lead.
A horrible quarter capped off for University Heights when Dwaine Moss buried a three on a third shot opportunity giving Henderson County a frightening 24-6 lead going into the second.
For the Blazers the arrival of a new quarter did not coincide with the arrival of a better shooting performance and that allowed Henderson County to stay in the zone, which in turned helped the Colonels continue their control of the boards. University Heights could simply not find a way to get the ball to go in the basket, and it was not just one player struggling, it was anyone that stepped on the court in the first half.
Henderson continued to dominate the glass and Dwaine Moss started to get involved in the Colonel offense. That combination resulted in Henderson County blowing the lead out to 33-10, prompting a second first-half timeout from UHA coach Terry Hayes.
Henderson County took a 37-14 lead into the break and had everything going in their direction.
How bad was it for the Blazers? UHA had only five field goals in the first half of play, none from behind the 3-point line, and 4 of 6 from the free throw line.
The bad news for University Heights and Blazer Nation was that nothing changed as the second half got underway. And, it may have actually gotten worse in the third quarter.
The Blazers were held without a point until Quintin Quarles got a 15-foot jumper to go down. At that point, the Henderson County lead had grown to 41-16. When the third quarter ended the Colonels were cruising towards the title game with a 48-19 lead.
Henderson County continued to pull away as the fourth quarter got underway, leading by as many as 40 in the final eight minutes before closing out the 35 point win.
Dwaine Moss led the Henderson County effort with 17 points. Lacon McKinney added 16 points and 8 rebounds. Alec Satterfield just missed out on double figures with 9 points.
No UHA Blazer reached double figures. Quinton Quarles finished the night with 9 points. Tylin George added 8 for University Heights.
The Blazers see their season end at 24-7 and with an 8th District championship.
Henderson County moves on to Tuesday night’s championship game with a record of 26-6. It will be the Colonels’ first appearance in the championship game since 2014. That season they lost to Hopkinsville 64-47.
HCHS — 24 13 11 21 – 69
UHA — 6 8 5 15 – 34
Henderson County – Moss 17, McKinney 16, Satterfield 9, Davenport 8, Suggs 7, Kendrick 4, Belle 3, Branson 2, Davis 2, Thompson 1
University Heights – Quarles 9, George 8, Walton 7, Baker 5, Grubbs 5
