Henderson's Heroics Lead Warrors Past Bears, 53-45

Scores First 16 Points In 2nd Half Of 3-AAA Title Game

  • Saturday, February 28, 2015
  • Larry Fleming

Kordell Henderson's broad shoulders were more than enough to carry his White County teammates on a mind-boggling, second-half offensive assault rarely seen on basketball courts in the Chattanooga area, or anywhere else for that matter.

Henderson scored White County’s first 16 points of the second half and powered the District 6-AAA champion Warriors to a 53-45 come-from-behind victory over Bradley Central on Saturday to win the Region 3-AAA tournament championship at Ooltewah High School.

Henderson, who scored a career-high 42 points against Stone Memorial earlier this season, outscored the Bears 13-2 in the third quarter and continued his offensive binge into the fourth period with a field goal and one free throw.

“He’s very athletic and long,” Bradley’s Cole Copeland said of Henderson. “I’ll probably have nightmares about that tonight.”

Copeland was further amazed at Henderson’s ability to take over the game after intermission.

“I haven’t seen anything like that,” he said. “I thought we did a good job on him in the first half, but we just kept letting him shoot in the second half. We couldn’t keep him off the offensive glass and he got a lot of second-chance shots.”

The 6-foot-7-inch Henderson scored 23 of his game-high 29 points in the second-half points while Bradley Central’s entire team put up just 15 and watched a 30-23 halftime advantage erased by Henderson’s sterling performance, one that earned a standing ovation from the large White County contingent on hand when he left the game with less than five seconds on the clock.

“I did something like this against Cookeville this season,” Henderson said, “and I scored 42 points against Stone Memorial. Those were good games for me.”

When Henderson went off on the Bears, only one other White County player – Cade Crosland – even took a shot, and Crosland’s miss was knocked out of bounds, giving possession to Bradley Central.

With the victory, White County (29-3) advanced to Tuesday’s Class AAA sectionals and will host Lawrence County (22-8).  

Bradley Central (22-9), who won District 5-AAA regular season and tournament titles behind MVP Copeland, travels to Murfreesboro to play Blackman (23-5), the Region 4-AAA champion.  

All sectional games begin at 7 p.m. local time and winners move on to the TSSAA boys’ state tournament that begins March 11 at Middle Tennessee State University.

“That third quarter killed us,” Bradley coach Chuck Clark said. “We went blank. We were working on switching against (Henderson) and they exploited our switches. He’s a really good offensive player.”

White County coach Eric Mitchell has been watching Henderson do his thing for a few years.

“When his head is right he brings a new dimension to the team,” Mitchell said. “He possesses every aspect of the game. He’s always been a guard and he’s grown 7 inches in high school. He’s hard to handle.”

Henderson’s assault began with a running floater off the glass.

Then he drove for a bucket that turned into a three-point play.

His field goal with 5:25 left tied the game at 30-all.

Copeland interrupted Henderson’s surge with two free throws, but the Warriors standout followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing. He then made another three-point play, on which Copeland picked up his third foul.

The quarter belonged to the big man: Henderson 13, Bradley Central 2.

Henderson opened the fourth period with a bucket that extended the Warriors’ lead to 38-32. Copeland hit two free throws and Ty Morgan made one, pulling the Bears to within 38-35.

At the 5:20 mark, Henderson hit a free throw for his 16th consecutive point and White County had a 39-35 lead when his personal assault ended.

Morgan drained a 3 from the top of the circle and Bradley was within a point, but Cole Vaughn drove the lane for a layup to push the lead back to three.

The Warriors, who handed Mitchell his first region crown in six trips to the championship, including three when he was at Pickett County, made 12-of-14 free throws in the final 3:18 to seal the deal. Fittingly, Henderson made the last two.

In all, White County made 15-of-18 charity tosses.

“It was one of those games,” said Copeland, who led the Bears with 13 points. “I hate losing more than I like winning. This is a tough loss and we have to get over it quick. We’ve got to go to Murfreesboro on Tuesday.”

Ironically, Bradley’s Tucker Maroon had the Warriors on their heels in the first half.

The Warriors scored the game’s first five points, but the Bears came back with 11 in a row and on Bradley’s next trip down the court Maroon nailed the first of three 3-pointers after missing his first two attempts.

Maroon made two more 3s in the opening period, the last with 3.2 seconds on the clock, and Bradley led 19-9.

When Morgan connected on a 3, the Bears had their biggest lead at 26-13. They were up 30-18 with 73 seconds left in the half, but White County’s Cade Crosland, who scored 24 points in the team’s semifinal victory over Cookeville, made a 3 and Henderson added a free throw to cut the deficit to 30-23 at halftime.

Henderson took care of the second half and the Warriors went 7-of-19 from the floor and 15-of-17 from the charity stripe. They wound up hitting 17-of-41 shots for 41 percent and had a slight 25-24 rebounding edge.

“This win means a lot to me,” Mitchell said. “I’ve got a good team, a bunch of well-rounded young men, and I’m proud of them.”

Maroon and Morgan each scored 11 points for the Bears, who shot 33 percent (12-of-36) in the second half after hitting 8-of-19 (42 percent) in the opening half.

Crosland scored 13 points for the Warriors.

In the girls’ championship, No. 2 seed White County (29-3) upset top-seed Cumberland County, 56-49, and will host Oakland in the Class AAA sectional on Monday. Cumberland County (26-5) will travel to Murfreesboro and play the defending state and national champion Blackman Lady Blaze (28-2).

The two winners advance to the state tournament at MTSU, which starts Wednesday.

Bradley Central, which lost to White County 64-60 in double overtime in Friday’s semifinals, placed two players – Rhyne Howard and Halle Hughes – on the girls’ all-tournament team.

Game Summary

Boys Championship

White County                                9 14 13 17 – 53

Bradley Central                           19 11 2 13 – 45

White County (53) –Kordell Henderson 29, Cade Crosland 13, Fresh 1, Vaughn 6, Stephenson 2, Robbin, Whited, Newport.

Bradley Central (45) – Clark 6, Cole Copeland 13, Tucker Maroon 11, Pitner, Ware, McCurdy 2, Ty Morgan 11, Rymer 2.

3-Point Goals – White County 4 (Crosland 3, Henderson 1), Bradley Central 6 (Maroon 3, Morgan 2, Copeland 1).

Boys All-Tournament Team

White County – Cade Crosland, Kordell Henderson, Cole Vaughn; Bradley Central – Cole Copeland, Ty Morgan, Tucker Maroon; Stone Memorial – Gage Spence, Tristan Norman; Cookeville – Will Buford, Trey Bundrant.

Girls Championship

White County                               13 14 15 14 – 56

Cumberland County                  19 10 7 13 – 49

White County (56) – Johnson, Taylor 9, Ratliff, Luna 6, Quillen 3, Hannah Leftwich 13, E. Howard 7, Alex Lewis 18.

Cumberland County (49) – Dick 4, Lee 4, McLaughlin, Eldridge, Hyder, Destiny Carlton 12, Makenzie Iles 11, Klaire Varney 14, Smith 4, Clark.

3-Point Goals – White County 2 (Taylor 1, E. Howard 1), Cumberland County 2 (Iles 1, Varney 1).

Girls All-Tournament Team

White County – Deandra Luna, Bella Taylor, Alex Lewis; Cumberland County – Klaire Varney, Destiny Carlton, Makenzie Iles; Bradley Central – Rhyne Howard, Halle Hughes; Cookeville – Toiya Gwynn, Courtney Savage.

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

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