Pickin' Splinters

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Streaking Comets: Strong’s late 3 lifts R-H to fifth straight win

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By PAUL GOTHAM

An illness contributed to Graylin Strong’s recent shooting woes.

Good thing for Rush-Henrietta boys’ basketball the senior guard recovered his touch in time.

Strong connected on a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers including the game winner as the host Royal Comets defeated Penfield, 66-64 in Monroe County Division I action, Friday night.

The 6-foot-2 left-hander stepped into a corner 3 with 3.1 seconds remaining and R-H trailing by one.

“When I got the ball, I knew I had to make that shot, so I knocked it down,” he said. “I’ve been struggling shooting a little bit lately coming off being sick. I’ve been finding my groove trying to get back to my starting spot.”

Sophomore point guard Avery Council turned down a ball screen at the top of the key and got a step on his man to freeze Strong’s defender in the lane. Council didn’t hesitate with his teammate open in the corner.

“He got past his defender and drew in the help,” Strong said. “Then he made the right play which was to find me in the corner.

“I knew I had to make an impact on the game more than just on the defensive end. I had to do my thing and knock down shots like the shooter I am for my team.”

The sequence capped a comeback which saw the Royal Comets erase a five-point deficit in the final 3:54 of the game.

“We were looking for Avery to get to the basket,” said first-year Rush-Henrietta head coach Calvin Betts. “We just told him ‘See what you can get. If you can get there, finish. If not, see your kicks.’ We are very confident in all the players on our team. Graylin got a great look, and he knocked it down.”

Penfield’s half-court heave on the ensuing play was off the mark.

The win was the fifth straight for R-H (11-8), but first during that stretch over a team with a winning record.

“Guys are really starting to play for each other,” Betts said. “They’re moving the ball, playing great defense, rebounding. They’re energy is great. This is a great win for our program.”

Penfield (13-5) took a 74-62 decision when the two teams, which play in different classifications during the postseason, met in early January.

“That’s a triple-A team with a ton of athleticism,” said Penfield head coach Jason Ellis. “It was a physical battle. I’m proud of our kids.”

The Patriots, unofficially the No. 2 seed in Class AA, had won four of five heading into Friday’s action.

“They’re peaking when they need to, but a loss doesn’t mean we’re not peaking either,” Ellis said. “It’s going to show up as a loss, but it’s all about the attitude. We’re going to bounce back.”

Sophomore Christian Zarzycki hit three 3-pointers and scored 12 of his game-high 29 points to stake Penfield to an early 25-17 lead.

Trevor Hofer and Jackson Green accounted for five apiece in the second quarter as the Patriots took a 38-32 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

Zarzycki converted a pair of free throws with 2:07 left in the third quarter to push the Penfield lead back to seven at 47-40.

“Early on in the season, with some of the bad habits that we had, if we would have gotten down like that, guys would have done their own thing,” Betts said. “But the guys stuck with it tonight. The attitude inside of our huddle was positive. It was to keep pushing. This game was not over. One stop a time.”

Council’s bucket with 22.6 to go in the third cut the deficit to three at 47-44 and made it a one-possession game for the first time since Penfield led 5-2 in the early going.

Jalen Taggart grabbed a defensive rebound and went the length of the floor for a layup and two of his team-high 22 points to tie the game at 49-49.

Council’s steal and layup with 2:17 to go gave R-H its first lead of the night at 58-56.

“We got a lot of pieces,” Betts said mentioning Kobey Weeks, Myles Collins-Howard and Jahquin Brown among other members of the R-H squad. “Yeah, you can guard Avery. You may stop Jalen, but you can’t just key in on one or two guys. You got to be worried about everybody, and that’s what makes us such a good team.”

R-H closes its regular season at Victor next Wednesday.

Penfield hosts School of the Arts on Monday and Hilton on Wednesday to close the regular season.

PENFIELD
Trevor Hofer 3 4-8 11, Jackson Green 3 1-2 7, Christian Zarzycki 8 7-7 29, Jacob Natale 0 0-0 0, Michael Moxley 0 0-0 0, Patrick Emling 5 0-1 10, Kelsey McGraw 0 0-0 0, Jake McCarthy 3 1-2 7 TOTALS 22 13-20 — 64

RUSH-HENRIETTA
Graylin Strong 3 0-0 8, Ethan Dengler 1 1-2 3, Avery Council 8 3-4 19, Isaiah Gulley 0 0-0 0, Kobey Weeks 1 0-0 3, Jahquin Brown 0 0-0 0, Amir Abdul-Haqq 3 0-0 6, Logan Breen 0 0-0 0, Myles Collins-Howard 2 0-0 5, Jalen Taggart 7 5-5 22, Parker Baldwin 0 0-0 0 TOTALS 25 9-11 — 66

PENFIELD 25 13 9 17 — 64
RUSH-HENRIETTA 17 15 12 22 — 66

3-point goals: PENFIELD 7 (Hofer 1, Zarzycki 6); RUSH-HENRIETTA 7 (Strong 2, Weeks 1, Collins-Howard 1, Taggart 3).

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