McHenry comes up clutch for Tops in OT win against Racers

Published 11:52 pm Saturday, December 14, 2024

by Jeff Nations

Don McHenry set up Murray State on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

All game long, the Western Kentucky senior guard had been attacking the rim with drives for leaners and layups in the paint. So when McHenry got the ball at the top of the key in overtime, the Racers couldn’t help but feel more of the same was coming. Instead, McHenry stepped back and popped a 3-pointer that put the Tops up for good with less than a minute to go in an 81-76 overtime win.

McHenry finished with a season-high 29 points in the victory, hitting plenty of big shots for a quality win against a tough opponent. He saved his biggest shot for that OT, burying that 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Hilltoppers up 76-74 with 36 seconds left.

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“It felt real good because I feel like I missed a bunch of good looks that I had,” McHenry said. “Some teammates set me up for some good plays that we ran, executed well and maybe forced it. … Just still having that confidence and getting that shot to fall was big, I think. I thank God I was able to make that shot.”

WKU first-year head coach Hank Plona, who coached McHenry for a season at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College and again last year as former WKU head coach Steve Lutz’s top assistant, has seen McHenry come through time and time again in his college career.

“It takes some a fortitude, not only to take it but he wants to be in those situations,” Plona said. “I mean, he lives for those moments and he expects to make it and obviously we’re very fortunate to have an elite offensive player like him on our basketball team.”

Murray State (6-3) turned the ball over on its ensuing possession and McHenry hit a pair of free throws to increase the lead to four. Kylen Milton’s layup got the Racers within 78-76 with nine seconds left, then WKU’s Braxton Baylesss drew a foul and hit the first but missed the second free throw. The Racers pushed downcourt, but again turned it over with a deflection out of bounds.

WKU graduate senior guard Khristian Lander iced the win, the Hilltoppers’ fourth straight, with a pair of free throws with three seconds left in OT.

“I just thought the togetherness that we showed on both ends of the floor in a very, very high-pressure situation was something that you want to see from a veteran team but it’s great that we did see it from a veteran team,” Plona said. “I think we’ve done a good job the last three games of pulling away in the second half, but Murray is an elite-level team and you don’t just pull away on those.”

WKU (7-3) opened the day red-hot from the field, hitting its first five field-goal attempts. Then the Tops went ice cold, missing 11 straight shots in a scoreless stretch of about 6 1/2 minutes that allowed Murray to build a 22-10 lead with 9:49 left in the first half.

The Tops, despite going 0-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half, whittled the Racers’ lead down to six at 39-33 by halftime.

A 15-0 run by WKU early in the second half flipped the momentum was the Tops led 49-42 at the end of that surge – a pair of 3-pointers by McHenry and another from Tyrone Marshall Jr. did much of the damage.

“We just had to settle down and play our game,” Marshall said. “We’ve got to get out fast – you know, real fast. We’re a fast team team, so we wanted to put them on our speed when we play. We want to play the type of speed we play. We don’t want to play no slow because when you slow down, that’s not our game. And going into the halftime, we came out and we wanted them to play our game – back and forth, back and forth with us. Basically we just mainly get stops, get rebounds and get out. That’s all we had to do.”

Murray surged back, retaking the lead with a little more than 10 minutes left and stretching out an eight-point advantage (63-55) on a KyeRon Lindsay tip-in with 6:58 left in regulation. Worse for WKU, senior forward Babacar Faye – who had 17 points and nine rebounds up to that point – went down with a right knee injury and did not return.

“He’s not feeling his best, but he’s a mentally strong young man,” Plona said. “He has a knee injury. I think he’s scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow, so I would think we’ll try to give you guys the best update we can when that happens. Obviously he’s an important part of our team.”

Instead of folding, the Hilltoppers rallied with back-to-back 3s by Marshall and McHenry, then later pulled even at 65-all on McHenry’s layup with 1:02 to go in regulation.

The Racers hit a pair of free throws to push back ahead by two, but McHenry knotted the score again with a tip-in off his own missed shot on a drive in the lane.

Murray State squandered a chance for the go-ahead bucket when Nick Ellington missed a layup with six seconds left, and Marshall’s last-second 3 rolled out to send the game to overtime.

McHenry took it from there.

“This is a big win for us, but it’s still early,” McHenry said. “We’ve still got work to do and just keep getting better.”

JaCobi Wood scored 22 points to lead the Racers, who had four players finish in double-digit scoring. WKU outrebounded Murray State 52-40 in the win.

Lander added 12 points and Marshall had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Tops, who host Seattle on Tuesday at 7 p.m. That will be the third of a four-game homestand for WKU.

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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