News > Boys' Varsity - Rush Henrietta
01/09/04
Practice makes perfect for R-H
Comets unbeaten after defeat of Fairport
By JAMES JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
JAMIE GERMANO staff photographer
Fairport’s Ryan McAdam shoots around Rush-Henrietta’s Calvin Betts at Fairport. Betts, a sophomore, scored 11 as the Royal Comets won 53-50 on Friday night. [Day in Photos]
(January 10, 2004) — PERINTON — In a way, Rush-Henrietta’s Ryan Henry and Tim Jackson began warming up for last night’s basketball game at Fairport months ago.
The two guards and their teammates spent the off-season shooting jump shots, anticipating that teams believed that was a Rush-Henrietta weakness.
Or so the logic went, until the Royal Comets made keys shots throughout Rush-Henrietta’s 53-50 Monroe County Division I victory at Fairport on Friday night.
JAMIE GERMANO staff photographer
Fairport’s Ryan McAdam shoots around Rush-Henrietta’s Calvin Betts at Fairport. Betts, a sophomore, scored 11 as the Royal Comets won 53-50 on Friday night.Henry finished with a game-high 15 points, including a pair of Rush-Henrietta’s seven three-pointers, in front of a crowd of about 2,300 people at Jeff Fitch Court.
“We practiced all summer, until our arms got tired,” said Henry, the younger brother of former Rush-Henrietta standout and All-Greater Rochester Player of the Year Ray Henry. “We played over 40 summer league games plus AAU, played a lot during open gym and did a lot of shooting.
“There’s more dedication from everybody this year.”
Jackson, Rush-Henrietta’s point guard, added 13 points and Calvin Betts, an All-Greater Rochester forward last season as a freshman, had 11 for the still unbeaten Royal Comets (5-0, 8-0).
Betts and Jackson each drained two 3-pointers for what the players say is a transformed Rush-Henrietta team. They say no longer are they a team that relies on slashing to the basket in order to score.
“We live and die by the three-pointer,” Jackson said.
“We knew that people were saying ‘If defenses set up in a zone, what are they going to do?’
“(Tonight) shows that we’re one of the top teams in the area.”
The game had the feel of another back and forth game that these two teams have played often in recent years.
The Red Raiders scored 12 of the first 15 points of the second half, including three-pointers of their own by Brett Havens and Erik Johnson.
“I wish we could’ve kept it going,” said Ryan McAdam, who finished with a team-high 13 points and 11 rebounds for Fairport (4-1, 7-2). “They just kept getting buckets when they needed to.”
JJOHNSO@DemocratandChronicle.com
