Going out in style, Manchester senior Drew Kennedy poured in 30 points on Senior Night as the Greyhounds defeated West Union, 81-48. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Kennedy’s 30 leads Senior Night win over West Union
In the February 9 loss at Manchester, West Union as led by 19 points from junior Trae Grooms. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
A successful regular season came to a close last Friday night for Coach Austin Kingsolver and his Manchester Greyhounds as they hosted the struggling West Union Dragons on Senior Night in the HoundPound. Through all the emotions and pageantry of Senior Night, the Greyhounds came through with an impressive showing, riding the wave of a 40-point first half and a career night from senior Drew Kennedy to race past the Dragons to an 81-48 victory.
The win left the Hounds with a 14-8 regular season mark, the most wins by an MHS varsity boys team in a number of seasons, and wrapped up second place in the small school division of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, finishing 7-6 in conference play. The Dragons dropped to a disappointing 3-17 overall with a pair of make up games still remaining.
“I thought we played extremely hard tonight,” said Coach Kingsolver in his postgame radio spot. “Everybody came in and did their jobs and we ran the floor extremely well. We missed a lot of layups, but we made a lot of layups. We didn’t turn them over as much as I thought we could have but with everyone running the floor well all our kids got a lot of touches. This is a group of kids that share the ball extremely well and I’m sure we had quite a few assists tonight.”
“We gave up more offensive rebounds than I would have liked and they got loose a little too much in the first three quarters but in the fourth quarter we guarded a lot better. I’ll take the win any night of the week.”
Friday night’s game was close only for the first few minutes, tied at 6 at the 5:30 mark of the first quarter after a bucket by West Union’s Gavin Jarvis. That deadlock was very temporary as the Hounds followed the Jarvis score with an 8-0 run, half of those points coming from Leland Horner. A basket by the Dragons’ Trae Grooms broke the run was but was answered by the Hounds’ Connor Darnell draining a three-ball to make it 17-8. After another Grooms bucket, the home team closed the first quarter with a 7-1 run, capped by Kennedy firing in a three at the horn for a 24-11 advantage.
The Hounds opened the second stanza with a Luke Applegate triple and the two teams went back and forth with the Manchester lead never falling below 12 points. The Dragons got a Logan Caldwell three- point play and a Grooms three-pointer to stay within reasonable striking distance, but baskets by Kennedy and Applegate late in the quarter sent the Hounds to the half with a 40-25 lead.
As the third quarter progressed, the Greyhounds just continued to build their margin,a Parker Hayslip trey making it 51-29 before the Dragons showed some life and reeled off an 8-0 spurt, getting baskets on putbacks from Billy Flaugher and Darius Davis. The Hounds regained their composure to get buckets from Hayslip and Kennedy to lead 55-39 after three.
The final period was nothing short of a disaster for a Dragon squad, who began to look tired after the constant up tempo play of the home team. The Greyhounds exploded for a 17-2 run to begin the fourth quarter, fueled by Kennedy and Horner and the outcome, though already not much in doubt, became quite clear as the gap spread to 72-41.
After another Hayslip three-pointer made it 77-45, Coach Kingsolver emptied his bench, but not until Kennedy got a run out layup for his 30th points of the night, a career-high. The Dragons got a late three from Jake Thompson and the scoring closed with a layup from Manchester’s Ronnie Elam as the Hounds ended regular season play on a very high note and a 33-point win.
It was more than a memorable night for Manchester’s Drew Kennedy, who scored 30 points in his final home game, eclipsing the single-game marks of his sister and mother, both of whom were pretty good ballers in their own right. Also in his final home game, Greyhound senior Connor Darnell hit double figures with 14 points. At times, Manchester junior Leland Horner was unstoppable in the paint as he tallied 15 points in the win. Sophomore Parker Hayslip also had a solid double figure outing, adding 11 points.
“Connor and Drew (our two seniors) are great leaders and great kids,” added Coach Kingsolver. “They’re here every single day and they push other kids to work hard every single day. Drew and Connor do a lot for us on both ends of the floor and I had no idea Drew had 30 tonight, but we have 7-8 guys who can score and that makes us a threat.”
West Union was led in scoring by junior Trae Grooms, who tossed in 19 points, with Billy Flaugher adding 9.
The Greyhounds will now move on into the Division IV sectional tournament, while the Dragons will conclude their regular season as they hosted Sciotoville East on Tuesday night and then will travel to Felicity on Thursday, both non-conference contests.
West Union
11 14 14 9 —48
Manchester
24 16 15 26 —81
W. Union (48): Pollitt 1 0-0 2, Davis 4 0-0 8, Grooms 9 0-0 19, Thompson 1 0-0 3, Jarvis 2 0-0 4, Flaugher 3 3-4 9, Caldwell 1 1-1 3, Team 21 4-5 48.
Manchester (81)- Hayslip 4 1-2 11, Robert 2 0-2 4, Elam 1 0-0 2, Darnell 6 1-8 14, Applegate 2 0-2 5, Kennedy 13 3-4 30, Horner 6 3-3 15, Team 34 8-21 81.
Three-Point Goals:
W. Union (2)- Grooms 1, Thompson 1
Manchester (5)- Hayslip 2, Darnell 1, Applegate 1, Kennedy 1
