Class AAAA blog: Henry County’s latest win strengthens resume

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The Henry County boys posted its most impressive team performance of the year in the MLK Dream Challenge against Riverwood on Jan. 21. The Warhawks’ leading scorer Wisdom Udoh was out with an injury, and they got off to a terrible start—falling behind 20-10 after the opening quarter. Head coach B.J. Thomas’ team responded, however, and outscored Riverwood 35-18 in the next three quarters to close out a 45-38 victory that grew their win-streak to 17 games. Henry County already has secured the top seed in the Region 4-AAAA tournament, but the motivated Eastside team they close out their regular season with on Tuesday has plenty to be playing for. Eastside—a 5-18 team a year ago—is in a battle with Woodward Academy for the No. 2 seed and has historically been a tough matchup for Henry County. Last year saw Eastside fall to the Warhawks 86-82 in overtime and 67-65. In this year’s meeting on Dec. 11, Henry County narrowly held on for a 64-62 win.

On the girls side, top-ranked Carver-Columbus hosts Westover for its season finale next Friday. It will be the second time the teams have met in a 10-day span. Their Jan. 22 meeting at Westover resulted in a 72-61 win by Carver-Columbus and was the closest margin of victory produced by the Tigers all season. Westover also became the first team to score 60 points against the Tigers this year. Carver-Columbus’ high-scoring offense opened up a 22-9 lead after the first quarter, but Westover closed the gap by outscoring the Tigers 24-20 in the second quarter. The Patriots’ 24-point quarter substantiates that they may be the only team in Region 1-AAAA capable of keeping pace with Carver-Columbus offensively and this rematch will put both teams to the test. The key, however, will be Westover’s ability to limit the impact of 6-foot-4 junior Olivia Cochran who dominated the last matchup with a game-high 32 points.