Henry, McCort spark St. C. by Harrison Central, 69-56
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Ryan Clifford has been around the game of basketball long enough to know to exploit an advantage.
The St. Clairsville head coach has a large advantage basically every time the Red Devils step on the floor by the name of Avery Henry. The 6-7, 300 pound center is a matchup problem.
Couple him with an All-Ohio guard like senior Ryan McCort and the Red Devils have a lot going for them.
Both were huge factors again on Thursday in leading St. Clairsville to a 69-56 victory in front of a large and loud crowd inside St. Clairsville High School.
"Ryan (McCort) made some big shots and we did a good job of getting the ball inside to Avery, and that's been a pretty good recipe for us for the first five games," Clifford said. "Avery is a problem (in the post). He's big, strong and mobile and Ryan really got going, too."
Both sparked the Devils late in the second quarter after Harrison Central made basically its lone big run of the game and took its lone two leads of the game at 26-24 and 28-26.
McCort hit a trey to put the Devils back on top by three and then hit one just before the second-quarter buzzer to push the lead to 34-30 at halftime.
And the momentum had officially shifted. McCort scored the opening two buckets in the third quarter. The Devils increased their lead to as many as 12 multiple times in the third quarter before heading to the fourth with a 53-43 lead.
"We had a little mental lapse to start the second half and just couldn't catch up," Harrison Central head coach Justin Clifford said. "The couple of little mental errors really cost us. We know St. Clairsville was pretty good. They have guys who have been around a while and they have a guy (Henry) who is so tough to defend and their other guys can spread you out."
Henry, who had three goals in the decisive third quarter, added eight more points in the fourth. All told, he and McCort combined for 49 of the Red Devil points. McCort had 25. The aforementioned intangibles that Henry's head coach pointed out allowed him to pull in an impressive 20 rebounds to go along with his scoring production.
While those two filled up the stat sheet, they weren't alone.
Freshman Tyson Pastor played probably the best game of his very young career. He had six points and nine rebounds.
"Tyson is coming along and starting to get over the nerves of being a freshman," Ryan Clifford said. "He has a really bright future for us."
The Huskies, meanwhile, received another strong effort from senior Jonathan Vermillion. Playing just his second game after missing the early portion of the season because of a football injury, he scored 24 points. Sophomore Hayden Cassidy scored 15 and freshman Mykel Quito, who had to contend with Henry on the low block, scored eight points and had a like number of rebounds.
"We're close (to turning the corner)," Justin Clifford said of his Huskies. "I think we have a chance to be okay, and we're getting there. We're just not there yet."
While some might believe Christmas celebrations between the Clifford Brothers could be affected by playing this close to the holiday, that's not the case.
"Harrison won this game right before Christmas last year," Ryan Clifford said. "(The game) won't come up between us. He might get on me a little bit for holding the ball, but we won't talk about it much. They'll be football on (television) and kids running around. We'll have moved on to the next opponent."
The Huskies, who dropped to 4-4, return to action at Toronto on Tuesday against Barnesville. The Red Devils (4-2) are off until Marietta visits on Jan. 4.