Henry’s 23 points help Peddie win
HIGHTSTOWN » To truly understand how much the Peddie School varsity girls’ basketball team has grown this season, one would only have needed to see its New Jersey Independent Schools Athletic Association Prep A Tournament opener with the Pingry School Saturday.
The Falcons were without one of its tallest players, while its top scorer was battling an illness against the tenacious Big Blue.
Add in the pressure of it being Senior Day, and it was not an easy way to start the postseason.
But Peddie 2019-20 has become much more complete than its two-win club of a year ago. Enter sophomore Kayla Henry. Henry, a six-foot guard/forward with a nice shooting touch, came up with a career-best game, scoring 23 points to almost double her previous high and help head coach Dr. Sarah Venanzi’s squad rally for a 62-54 win in the final 3:30.
“I feel like I’ve struggled through this season, but today I had a burst of energy,” said Henry, who scored six of her points in a 13-3 closing run the Falcons put together after Pingry’s Bella Goodwin hit a 3-point field goal to put the visitors ahead, 51-49.
It was quite the turn for a game which had seen 16 lead changes and five ties from the second quarter on.
Things began to go Peddie’s way when Taylor Blunt answered Goodwin’s trey with a long range 3-pointer with 2:20 to play. Blunt, Mercer County’s prep school leading scorer, had been battling a stomach problem all game to the extent that her 3 put the 19.6-point-per-game scorer into double digits for the first time.
“I had faith in my teammates. I knew we weren’t going to lose,” said Blunt, who finished with 12 points. “Once Kayla Henry started knocking down her shots, I knew she was on and we’d be O.K.”
On this day when seniors Chahat Mittal, McKenzie Guest-Hicks and Kharma Hall were honored before the game, the Falcons got help from just about everyone as six of the eight players who took the court reached the scorer’s column.
“With (6-foot-1 junior) Mya Ademilola injured and Taylor Blunt sick, we needed others to step up, and everyone contributed,” Venanzi said after her team improved to 11-10 and advanced to a 4:30 p.m. Monday semifinal at top-seeded Blair Academy (20-4).
Pingry (13-9) was in heavy foul trouble in the fourth quarter, as was Blunt, who picked up her fourth foul with five minutes left.
Yet, after Cailtin Schwarz hit a pair of free throws to give head coach Courtney Tierney’s team its first lead of the fourth quarter, Hope Maultsby fouled out with 4:23 to go. Falcons junior Ekene Owunna hit two foul shots to put the home team back in front ahead of Goodwin’s triple.
Owunna went on to score four more points during the closing rally to finish with eight points, tying her with Guest-Hicks, who hit two 3-pointers, along with sophomore Caroline Johnson.
“We were struggling on defense,” Henry said. “But once we started making shots, our defense followed.”
Schwarz hit a trey with 1:12 to go, but those were the only points the Big Blue managed the rest of the way. Schwarz fouled out with 41.8 seconds left with a team-high 16 points. Goodwin and Olivia Volpe had 13 points, while Alyson Feeley scored 12 and had 19 rebounds to frustrate Peddie.
This time, however, the Falcons had plenty of help to fend off Pingry’s attack and grab their first state tournament win in three years.
PINGRY (54)
Schwarz 5-5-16, Volpe 5-3-13, Goodwin 4-3-13, Maultsby 0-0-0, Feeley 6-0-12, Barr 0-0-0, KAnderson 0-0-0, Keller 0-0-0.
Totals — 20-11-54.
PEDDIE (62)
KHall 2-1-5, Guest-Hicks 2-2-8, Mittal 0-0-0, Owunna 2-4-8, Blunt 3-5-12, Henry 9-2-23, Loughran 0-0-0, CJohnson 2-0-6.
Totals — 20-14-62.
Pingry (13-9) 10 13 16 15 — 54
Peddie (11-10) 15 10 16 21 — 62
3-point goals: Schwarz, Goodwin 2 (Pi), GuestHicks 2, Blunt, Henry 3, CJohnson 2 (Pe).