Pickin' Splinters

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Taggart and Rush-Henrietta outlast Penfield

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Jalen Taggart (3) leads Rush-Henrietta on the break with teammates Jahquin Brown (2) and Avery Council. Taggart finished with a game-high 27 points including six in the final minute of play to lift the Royal Comets past Penfield, 68-60 on Wednesday, December 19, 2024. (Photo: JEROME DAVIS)

By PAUL GOTHAM

HENRIETTA, N.Y. – More than 30 minutes into Wednesday’s matchup and two points were all that separated host Rush-Henrietta and Penfield.

The two teams had exchanged leads 17 times and played through nine ties.

Finally, one flinched.

Jalen Taggart scored six of his game-high 27 points in the final minute of play, and Rush-Henrietta (4-0) stayed unbeaten on the season with a 68-60 victory.

“I’ll take 20 games like that,” said second-year R-H head coach Calvin Betts. “We like those battles early. It prepares us for the season.”

VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JEROME DAVIS HERE. 

In a game where neither team led by more than five points through the first three quarters, it was Rush-Henrietta’s pressure that finally tilted the scales.

The Royal Comets forced six turnovers in the first eight possessions of the fourth quarter to grab a lead it did not surrender.

“It’s in the energy of our guys,” Betts said. “What I’m trying to teach our guys to learn is the mindset. We got skill. We have talent, but our mindset throughout the game needs to stay a certain way. It was a close game. It was tight. Can we take our game to another level? At that moment in time, guys were able to do that.”

A Taggart 3-pointer gave R-H a 51-49 edge and proved to be the go-ahead bucket less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.

But the Royal Comets needed to weather a late push from Penfield.

“That’s a great team,” Betts said. “I tip my hat to Penfield. They’re coached very well. They ran different sets. They switched up defenses.”

Avery Council drew contact on a baseline drive for a three-point play, and Jahquin Brown followed with a steal and layup for a 60-53 R-H lead.

Three possessions later, though, it was a two-point game.

Penfield’s Michael Moxley hit a corner triple of his own and then connected on a jumper in the lane to make it 60-58 with under two minutes remaining.

“We just proved how tough we are,” said Penfield head coach Jason Ellis. “That’s a team (R-H) that is running through other teams right now. We handled their pressure for 29 minutes. The last three got away from us.”

R-H’s Amir Abdul-Haqq hit a turnaround jumper along the baseline. Then coming out of a timeout, Taggart pushed the lead to seven at 65-58 with his sixth 3-pointer of the night.

“Before that, I had missed two free throws, so I was getting in my head a little bit,” the junior guard said. “When I was sitting down, I was thinking about what I had to do. I picked up the energy, and I just went to the next play.”

“He’s not afraid of any moment, any situation,” Betts said of Taggart. “He’s going to take that shot and hit it comfortably. We have a lot of confidence and a lot of trust in Jalen Taggart.”

Penfield’s largest lead of the night was five at 38-33 after a Moxley three early in the third quarter. The Patriots last advantage of the night was 49-48 after a Patrick Emling bucket early in the fourth.

“I would play this game 20 times this year,” Ellis said echoing the sentiments of Betts. “Wins and losses don’t mean much when you’re building for something. We told the boys, win or lose this is another building block. It’s a brick in that process of walking the line to where we want to be.”

R-H (4-0) came into the game with three double-digit wins by an average margin of 13.7. The Royal Comets briefly led by 10 at 68-58 after Taggart followed a Council layup attempt on the break.

“Once our energy gets to a certain level, it shows in the game,” Betts said. “If we stick to what Rush-Henrietta is supposed to do, we can cause that with a lot of teams. We’re quick. We’re fast. We’re long. We’re athletic. For a lot of teams, it’s hard to prepare for a team like us. If you don’t have that at your gym, it’s going to be hard to prepare for that.”

Council finished with 12 points. Brown had 11.

Emling led Penfield (3-1) with 22. Jake McCarthy and Michael Moxley had 13 apiece.

“Their pressure finally wore us down,” Ellis said. “It wore us down. We got a little tired. We got a little careless. Those careless turnovers turned into run outs.”

“I’m really proud of those boys. They did their jobs tonight. We’re walking away feeling really, really good knowing that we’re the real deal in Double-A.”

The Monroe County Division I foes face each other again on January 31st – their final meeting of the season. Penfield plays in Class AA1, Rush-Henrietta in AAA.

PENFIELD (3-1)
Jackson Green 3 0-2 6, Jacob Natale 0 1-2 1, Constantine Johnson 2 0-0 5, Michael Moxley 4 3-4 13, Patrick Emling 8 5-10 22, Jake McCarthy 5 3-3 13 TOTALS 22 12-21 — 60

RUSH-HENRIETTA (4-0)
Jahquin Brown 3 5-6 11, Jalen Taggart 10 1-3 27, JJ Ward IV 2 3-7 8, Avery Council 4 3-6 12, Amir Abdul-Haqq 4 0-4 8, Kingston Henry 1 0-0 2, Daniel Schmitz III 0 0-0 0 TOTALS 23 12-26 — 68

PENFIELD 16 14 17 13 — 60
RUSH-HENRIETTA 14 17 16 21 — 68

3-point goals: PENFIELD 4 (Johnson 1, Moxley 2, Emling 1); RUSH-HENRIETTA 8 (Taggart 6, Ward 1, Council 1).

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