A Class Act – Murray knocks off Henry Clay 56-52 in Sweet 16
Grant Whitaker scored 19, Trey Boggess added 16 points and 12 boards, and the Murray Tigers knocked off the Henry Clay Blue Devils 56-52 in the opening round of the UK Healthcare Boys’ Sweet 16. With the Henry Clay defense focused on those two players, it was Caleb Gill and Mason Grant who scored clutch buckets for the No. 23 ranked Tigers.
Clinging to a one-point lead, Gill started at midcourt and drove past his man all the way to the rim for a layup to extend Murray’s lead to 54-51 lead with 1:04 remaining.
“I could see I had a mismatch. The lane was wide open,” Gill said.
After a Henderson free throw brought Henry Clay within 54-52, the Blue Devils played aggressive defense, allowing Boggess to find a wide-open Grant under the basket to push the lead to 56-52 with 40 seconds remaining. The Tigers held on from there.
Murray came out firing on all cylinders, jumping out to a 20-11 lead after the first quarter while forcing five Henry Clay turnovers. Boggess had nine first-quarter points, highlighted by a steal and run-out dunk followed by a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions. Whitaker added six for Murray. Kanye Henderson helped the Blue Devils hang around with seven points in the first stanza.
Henry Clay tightened up the defense, allowing Murray to score only eight second-quarter points. Aziel Blackwell scored to open the second quarter and a Henderson layup cut the deficit to 20-15, forcing a Murray time out. Henderson (13) and Blackwell (9) scored 22 of the Blue Devils’ 26 first-half points, but it was Konlin Brown’s buzzer-beater that made it 26-24 in favor of Murray at halftime.
A Henderson steal and transition bucket gave the Blue Devils a 42-37 third-quarter lead, but Murray battled back. Whitaker keyed the comeback. He had an and-1 followed by a Michael Jordan-style fadeaway to pull within two at 44-42.
After a back-and-forth fourth quarter, Whitaker banked in a gritty shot to put Murray up 52-51. That set up the stage for Gill and his heroics.
Blackwell and Henderson each finished with 22 points, but the Blue Devils only got eight points from their other players. No. 14 ranked Henry Clay (27-9) had an impressive run in the 11th Region tournament that included wins over ranked teams Lexington Catholic and Great Crossing.
Murray (26-6) advances to the quarterfinals and will face #5 Warren Central at 8:30 p.m. EST on Friday night at Rupp Arena. Head coach Dior Curtis noted how some pundits had Murray ranked 13th among the Sweet 16 teams (our rankings had them 13th out 16). He also said that teams from the western part of the state are often overlooked and that small schools often have a chip on their shoulder. They will be underdogs again against Warren Central.
Murray, who has 84 students in their senior class, joins Pikeville and Lyon County to form a trio of “Class A” teams in the quarterfinals.
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