Catonsville junior guard Malik Henderson made 4 of 4 free throws and the Comets hit 7 of 8 in overtime in a 47-45 victory over visiting Hereford on Friday night.
After Hereford took a 43-40 lead on a 3-point bank shot by Kreis Metz, Henderson hit his first two free throws. A short jumper by Hereford’s Brady George bumped the lead to 45-42 with 2:10 remaining before Nate Holub-Smith made a pair of free throws with 1:50 left and Henderson gave the Comets a lead they would never relinquish 20 seconds later.
“I had a rough game, but I had to get back in it, so my teammates pulled me up and my coaches talked to me and told me I just had to play my game and I had to knock down those free throws in the clutch,” said Henderson, playing in his first game for Catonsville after transferring from Loch Raven. “My teammates gave me energy. They stayed composed and they got it done.”
Henderson scored seven of his nine points in the fourth quarter and overtime after barely playing in the third.
“Malik is one of those players that needs to be challenged and he likes to be challenged, so by me taking him out of the game at certain times it kind of lit a fire under him and I was trying to get him to understand some of the information that I was trying to relate to him,” Catonsville coach Jason Harris said. “I let him cool off on the bench a little bit, let him recollect himself and he was itching to eat. He was staring at me the whole time, ‘Put me back in,’ and I was like, he got us back into the game so I’m going to finish with him on the court.”
The Comets looked like they were going to win it in regulation when they held a 40-37 lead in the final 30 seconds and Hereford’s leading scorer Tanner Diehl (game-high 24 points) was on the bench after fouling out. But with six seconds remaining, Metz banked in a three from the top of the key to extend the game.
The two bank-shot 3s were the sophomore’s only points of the game.
“We got the jump, ran the play and got the bucket when he banked it,” Hereford coach Jim Rhoads said.
Nate Holub-Smith had nine points in the Comets’ 47-45 overtime victory over Hereford.
Catonsville had a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter and at halftime, but Hereford went on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter and took a 24-19 lead. George started the run with a putback and Diehl’s 3-pointer and soft floater ended it.
Catonsville called a timeout with 4:23 left and switched to a man-to-man defense which powered its own 13-2 run.
“Our plan was to try a little bit of all of our defense and see what was sticking,” Harris said. “I felt like we were hit or miss on all of them, but we started getting into a groove in the man-to-man so I didn’t want to fix something that wasn’t broken.”
The defense coincided with the emergence of their perimeter game. A triple by Owens was followed by a pair of treys from Kyle Patterson.
“We went into this game trying not to live and die by the three, so I felt like we were a little timid to shoot the ball for a good portion of the game and I felt like we were trying to force feed it into the middle and we kind of got away from one of our strengths, Harris said. “We told Kyle when he got back in there when you catch the ball look at the rim and if you’ve got space shoot it and that’s what he’s on the team for.”
Holub-Smith was also one of the keys to the comeback with five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“Nate approached me last summer after the season and he asked for an expanded role, so we are trying to find different spots the floor where we can put him in successful positions,” Harris said “Sometimes, he’s playing the high post, sometimes he’s playing the block and sometimes he’s playing the wing, so we are trying to just mix it up and keep him not one-dimensional to give him multiple opportunities to impact the game.”
Holub-Smith (nine points) was involved in one of the key sequences with under two minutes left in regulation and the Comets leading by two when he, Owens and Gavin Edwards each grabbed consecutive offensive rebounds.
“The biggest difference was toward the end of regulation, they had like five offensive rebounds on one possession and the one before or after was the same thing,” Rhoads said. “We just got a little worn out. We are a little thin on the front line.”
Rhoads, who’s squad lost to Loch Ravem in the season opener, is without key sophomore point guard Sam Nicholson and sophomore forward Daniel Metz.
“We are so inexperienced,” Rhoads said. ‘My starting five, only [Jack Kinsey] started every game last year and nobody else even started a game.”
While Catonsville’s Harris waits for his squad to get more consistent shooting, he can count on his defense to keep his team in games.
“Defense, that’s what got our heart back in the game,” he said.
Scoring
C-Nate Holub-Smith 9, Malik Henderson 9, Trey Gould 7. Mike Owens 6, Kyle Patterson 6, Gavin Edwards 6, Will Turner 4; H-Tanner Diehl 24, Brady George 8, Kreis Metz 6, Jack Kinsey 4, Jude Craig 3.
Halftime 19-17 C
End regulation 40-40