Pickin' Splinters

Rochester's Independent Sports Source

Rush-Henrietta rallies to remain unbeaten

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Rush-Henrietta’s Jalen Taggart (3) uses a ball screen set by teammate Jahquin Brown (2) to get into the lane during action on Friday, January 11, 2024. Fairport’s Drew Sisson defends on the play. Taggart finished with a game-high 24 points as R-H defeated host Fairport, 66-62. (Photo: STEVEN TWARDZIK)

By PAUL GOTHAM

FAIRPORT, N.Y. — What started as a run became a deluge and less than two minutes into the second quarter, Rush-Henrietta (No. 22 NYSSWA Class AAA) found itself staring at a 20-point deficit.

By halftime, the Royal Comets had trimmed the margin to nine.

Five possessions into the fourth quarter, R-H had a lead it did not surrender.

“In my head. I was screaming ‘what are we doing? What are we doing?’” said second-year head coach Calvin Betts after R-H defeated host Fairport, 66-62. “At that moment in time, you can’t panic. I just told them to keep pushing, keep pushing.”

Avery Council and Jalen Taggart combined to score 38 points. This after the duo managed one field goal between them over the first 11 minutes of the game.

“They were jumping Avery on the ball and face-guarding Jalen,” Betts said of Fairport’s defense. “We told them ‘Set screens for each other. We are going to put you guys in screens together.’ If they wanted to jump it, we’ll have Jalen open on the back end. If they don’t Avery is going to turn the corner. It was a cat-and-mouse game, but it was fun. It was fun”

Council hit two 3-pointers and scored eight of his 14 points in the second quarter. The junior guard added three more after the break as R-H pulled within five at 48-43 heading into the final eight minutes.

Taggart scored 10 of his game-high 24 in the fourth quarter. The junior guard highlighted a decisive 13-4 run with a pair of triples.

“That was a great high school basketball game,” said Fairport head coach Scott Fitch. “It was fun to see the gym like that and have the energy.”

The Red Raiders scored all 18 of their first-quarter points from behind the 3-point arc with Landon Brunken connecting four times from distance, and Drew Sisson adding a pair of long-range strikes.

“The game has a lot of ebbs and flows,” Fitch said. “We started off moving the ball and hitting shots. Then we stopped moving the ball a little bit and got a little hesitant. But part of that is them (R-H). They created that.”

Fairport’s LaShard Lowry Jr. (3) looks up court for a pass. R-H’s Amir Abdul-Haqq (20) defends on the play. (Photo: STEVEN TWARDZIK)

A Sam Roselli three gave the Red Raiders their largest lead of the night at 29-9.

R-H limited the Red Raiders to two threes for the remainder of the game.

“They were hitting a lot of threes,” Betts said. “Once we starting closing out on those jump shots and forcing them off the line, we were able to make them take tough mid-range shots or finish over our size which is to our advantage.

“We were making some dumb mistakes, slapping down and trying to swipe at the ball. Things like that. When we stay long, when we stay strong with our arms up, it’s tough to finish over us.”

With the win, Rush-Henrietta improved to 9-0 on the season and handed Fairport (8-1-0) its first setback.

“They played a good game,” Fitch said of the Royal Comets. “We definitely respect them a great deal. I think we can go back to the drawing board and get better. We’ll do that. I’m proud of the way we competed. I thought we played very hard just sometimes not smart, and you got to do that in big games.”

Fairport played without Jon Roessel who was sidelined with an injury. Roessel scored 17 in Fairport’s 66-46 win over Webster Thomas on Wednesday.

The same two teams meet again on February 12th at Rush-Henrietta.

RUSH-HENRIETTA
Jahquin Brown 4 1-2 9, Jalen Taggart 8 4-7 24, JJ Ward 3 0-0 9, Avery Council 5 2-3 14, Amir Abdul-Haqq 4 2-3 10, Daniel Schmitz III 0 0-0 0 TOTALS 24 9-15 — 66

FAIRPORT
Gannon Culver 1 0-0 2, LaShard Lowry Jr. 5 3-5 14, Alex Grejda 6 2-3 14, Sam Roselli 2 0-0 5, Landon Brunken 5 0-0 15, Drew Sisson 4 0-0 10, Hadi Dergham 1 0-0 2 TOTALS 24 5-8 — 62

RUSH-HENRIETTA 9 15 19 23 — 66
FAIRPORT 18 15 15 14 — 62

3-point goals: RUSH-HENRIETTA 9 (Taggart 4, Ward 3, Council 2); FAIRPORT 9 (Lowry 1, Roselli 1, Brunken 5, Sisson 2).

R-H’s Amir Abdul Haqq goes to the basket during Friday’s game. Fairport’s Alexander Grejda (10) defends on the play. (Photo: STEVEN TWARDZIK)

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