Henry-Senachwine earns TCC win over Seneca

HENRY — Henry-Senachwine senior forward Kaitlyn Anderson stepped in front of a Seneca pass to the wing and took it all the way for a layup in the final seconds on Monday night.

“I felt good enough that when I slammed on the floor after making the layup it didn’t hurt,“ Anderson said with a smile. ”It was a great way to finish the game for sure.”

Anderson’s steal turned hoop put the finishing touch on the Mallards 51-42 Tri-County Conference victory over the Fighting Irish on John C. Anderson Court.

Henry-Senachwine improved to 9-11 overall and 2-7 in league action. Seneca had its four-game winning streak snapped in falling to 14-5 and 7-2.

Seneca had defeated H-S 64-34 back on December 2.

Anderson led the hosts with 20 points, 10 rebounds and six steals, with the guard tandem of sophomore Brynna Anderson (14 points, three rebounds, five steals) and senior Lauren Harbison (eight points, five assists) posting solid games against Seneca full-court pressure defense.

“We had a game last week and afterwards (H-S) coach (Clinton) Schlosser told our guards they need to step up and be more aggressive because they are capable of it,” Kaitlyn Anderson said. “They showed it tonight; they really did a good job of handling the ball against the pressure. Lauren and Brynna are a big reason we won this game tonight.

“I feel like we all did the job we needed to do. Our guards handled the pressure, and the forwards kept moving and cutting to open spots. We all worked hard together, and things turned out awesome.”

Seneca senior Alyssa Zellers scored 10 of her 20 points and Graysen Provance all of her eight points in the first half as the visitors led 25-22.

However, the Mallards outscored the Irish 17-5 — including 10 points by Kaitlyn Anderson — over the opening nine minutes of the second half, with drive Brynna Anderson making it 39-30 with just over six minutes to play.

Seneca cut the disadvantage to five three times in the final three minutes, but each time the Mallards followed with a basket.

“While I thought we came out early with good energy, but Henry-Senachwine played a lot tougher and harder overall throughout the game than we did,“ Seneca coach Josh Myers said. ”They made plays when they needed to, especially in the second half. They played well.”

Seneca, which also received eight points and six rebounds from Audrey McNabb, hit 15 of 39 (39%) from the field and committed 23 miscues.

“They did a pretty good job of handling our defensive pressure, and then many of the turnovers we did force we didn’t convert into points,” Myers said. “We were able to cut the lead to five there a couple times in the final few minutes but just couldn’t get that next stop and then next basket to make it a one possession game.”

For the game H-S shot 17 of 33 (52%) from the field and held a 31-20 margin in rebounds to help overcome 25 turnovers and a 14 of 28 night at the free-throw line.

“We’ve had a few games this season where we have a had a small lead late and ended up not winning the game,” Schlosser said. “While it wasn’t always the prettiest or smoothest, we found a way to hold on to a lead tonight. Our guards did a pretty good job of handling the pressure.

“We knew coming out of halftime that Seneca was really going to app up the pressure. We talked about how if they are up on us defensively, we needed use our quickness and drive to the basket. The girls did a great job with that.”

Both sides are back in action with TCC game on Thursday with Seneca hosting Marquette and the Mallards entertaining Midland.