By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Mecca McCullough and Kailee White combined for 55, and the Rush-Henrietta Royal Comets defeated the Webster Schroeder Warriors, 78-60 Wednesday night.
White netted 17 of his game-high 29 in the second half as Rush-Henrietta spoiled Schroeder’s home opener to improve to 3-0 on the season.
“Coach always says it’s tough on the road,” White said. “It was tight, but we stayed composed for the most part and made shots when needed to make them and kept them from going on big runs.”
The 6-foot-3 senior guard averaging 28 points through three games jump started the R-H offense in the first quarter when he scored on three straight possessions to turn a four-point edge into a double-digit cushion.
White hit a floater in the lane and followed with his second of five 3-pointers on the night. Next trip down the floor he used the dribble to get into the teeth of the Schroeder zone defense for a leaner and one to give the Royal Comets a 19-7 lead.
“He’s clearly one of the better guards in the area,” R-H coach Chris Reed said. “He’s a scoring guard. He also can defend multiple type players.”
McCullough connected 10 times from the floor and finished 6-of-8 from the free throw line for a season-high 26 points. His steal and layup gave R-H its largest lead of the first half at 26-10.
“We are talented,” Reed said. “We made plays when we needed to.”
Rush-Henrietta played without Shamire Broyld, the 6-foot-5 junior forward who is spending time out of town with family.
“He is a factor,” Reed said. “We were a little out of sorts without him. Offensively we seemed like all night long we didn’t have anybody in the post. We were five guys around the three-point line. We were just a little bit out of synch without him, but that said we did okay.”
Schroeder rallied in the second quarter behind their talented freshman duo of Luke Insley and Ky’Mere Meeks. Insley drilled a trio of 3-pointers, and Meeks scored seven of 19 points in the stanza.
Trailing by 10, Insley connected on back-to-back possessions from long range, and Colin Merkey converted a pair of free throws to cut deficit to four at 35-31 with 1:26 to go in the half.
But the Warriors did not pull any closer.
“Give Webster a lot of credit. I thought they played well,” Reed said of Schroeder. “They got a little more comfortable offensively, and they limited our running. They did do a nice job of getting back on defense. We were unable to get in transition really because we weren’t getting the stops that we were getting earlier.”
Malek Williams added 10 points for R-H. Tim Jackson had six.
Insley connected on 6-of-6 free throws and finished with a career-high 20 points. Nate Hardy scored all seven of his points in the second half. Mercy finished with six.
Schroeder fell to 1-4 with the loss.
Leave a Reply