By TIM IRVING
Fourth-seeded Rush-Henrietta started their Class AA Sectional game against fifth-seeded Webster Schroeder on a 13-0 run and won 71-57 to advance to Thursday’s semifinals.
The Royal Comets had five players in double figures, led by Mason Giorgione with 18 points.
“It’s what we are and that’s what we have to do to win because we can’t win with just one guy,” R-H coach Chris Reed said.
The Warriors rallied to cut a first quarter 21-9 deficit to 35-25 at the half as the three-pointers started to drop for Ben Carey, Matt Salina and Nick Hauman.
But for the second straight game, Tobey Wright came off the bench and answered with seven points in second alone.
The Royal Comets came of the locker room on fire again in the third with Giorgione scoring eight in that quarter, all driving to the basket in an effort to run at Schroeder.
“We wanna make the other team play our pace, we never wanna make the game slow because we are a fast team, feel like we can beat teams when we speed ‘em up,” said the junior guard Giorgione.
Insley kept the Warriors in it, scoring 13 of his game-high 24 points in the third quarter, including a basket at the buzzer that cut the lead to 55-45.
Reed said later, “We knew he probably would get his, he’s a very good player but what we didn’t want was (Ben) Carey to have five threes like he did that last time against us.”
Nasir Hunter locked it up with half of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Tobey Wright had 12 while Chris Sleeper and Gabe Wright added 11 each.
The Royal Comets face number one seed Victor in the semifinals on Thursday.
SCORING:
Webster Schroeder
James Knox (2), Ben Carey (11), Matt Salina (3), Luke Insley (24), Nick Hauman (9), Alex DeRosa (2), Evan DeMocker (3), Matt Fulkerson (3).
Rush-Henrietta
Mason Giorgione (18), C.J. Thomas (5), Nasir Hunter (14), Gabe Wright (11), Tobey Wright (12), Chis Sleeper (11).
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