Henry notches 1000th in SR win

PHOTO COURTESY OF SR BASKETBALL

South Ripley junior Cole Henry dunked home his 1000th career point on Tuesday night and the Raiders rolled to an easy 81-42 win at home against Rising Sun in an Ohio River Valley Conference boys basketball game.

The Raiders used Tuesday’s win to snap a two-game losing skid and put them at a lone win away from securing second place in the ORVC standings for the season.

South Ripley never was challenged in the game, building an early 20-12 lead before increasing the advantage to 38-23 at intermission. That lead only continued to grow as the Raiders put together a season-high 32 points in a single quarter as part of the third frame and that 32-14 blitz was followed by an 11-5 run to wrap up the night.

Now comes the fun part, starting with Henry who became the fifth 1000-point scorer in program history, joining Cody Samples (1429), Steve Allen (1287), Kris Cranfill (1259) and Joel Pflum (1041) in that category. After a slow start of four points began the night for the junior, Henry’s numbers skyrocketed to the tune of a career-high 37 points, 25 of which came in the second half. He notched 19 points alone in the third quarter as part of South Ripley’s biggest run of the night.

The 37 points was the sixth-highest single-game total in boys basketball history at the school.

Following up Henry’s night was classmate Blaine Ward who now stands less than 100 points away from 1000 career points of his own. After a two game absence due to a head injury, Ward made his return in grand fashion, tallying 30 points which included seven 3-pointers for the evening. He started the game with three triples en route to 12 points in the first quarter and his final three 3’s came inside an 11-point third quarter.

Ward became the 25th player in program history to record 30 points or more in a single game.

Gavin Binon’s six points and four points apiece by Bryson Sipples and Ethan Johnson rounded out the scoring for South Ripley. Rising Sun (5-17, 0-6 ORVC) got 20 points out of Brody Morris and 13 points from DJ Williams.

South Ripley (12-9, 4-1 ORVC) takes on Jac-Cen-Del Friday night in a home matchup against an ORVC and county rival.