By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Homecoming Night can sometimes mean distractions and loss of focus but that didn’t happen last Friday night for Coach Austin Kingsolver and his Manchester Greyhounds. Hosting Ripley for their 2024 Basketball Homecoming, the Hounds had no issues as they controlled the action from start to finish and handed their visitors a 62-24 thrashing.
Manchester led at every quarter stop, 17-19 after one, 30-13 at halftime and a big offensive third stanza saw it end with the Hounds up 53-21. The Hounds outscored the Jays 9-3 over the final eight minutes to account for the final margin of victory.
The Manchester attack was led by senior Connor Darnell’s 22 points, his second consecutive 20+ effort. Also in double figures for the winners was sophomore Parker Hayslip with 13.
Ripley was led by Jayden Bartley’s 7 points.
“We were balanced on offense and that makes us more difficult to guard,” said Coach Kingsolver. “We’ve got 5-7 guys that are a threat to score and can get 9-15 points at any time. We got great minutes from a lot of different players. Everyone stepped up and did their job. We’ve just got to be more consistent on both ends as we move closer to tournament play.”
The now 10-8 Greyhounds will be back in action of Wednesday, January 31, traveling to Fayetteville for a conference make-up game. On Friday, they will host Whiteoak in SHAC action and then conclude the week on Saturday night with a non-conference home date with East Clinton. Saturday will see the induction of the first members of the MHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
