Eagles avoid Thursday regional upset bug

Morrison had plenty of firepower Thursday night.

Hennessey had just a bit more.

The fourth-ranked Eagles survived an upset bid as they pulled away from Morrison late in a 7462 victory in a Class 2A regional semifinal at the Eagle Event Center.

The game was tied at half and after three quarters before Hennessey outscored the Wildcats 26-14 over the final eight minutes.

“We were able to hit some really big shots down the stretch,” said coach Brady Page after his team improved to 22-3.

The Eagles will host No. 11 Riverside at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in a regional championship game.

On a night when Crescent knocked off No. 12 Fairview and Merritt beat No. 3 Hooker, Morrison was putting itself in that conversation against Hennessey.

The Wildcats’ Briggs Roe, who has committed to play baseball at Kansas State, scored 12 points in the first half to help keep pace with the Eagles.

Camdyn Richardson countered with nine points for Hennessey and Jael Torres had eight.

However, Torres picked up two quick fouls to start the third quarter, giving him four for the game and sending him to the bench for an extended period of time.

That’s when James Sims helped pick up the slack.

“He had an excellent second half,” said Page.

The senior scored 12 points in the third quarter.

That’s also when Morrison’s Mason Schubert began to heat up. He scored 13 in the third and the two teams stayed knotted up.

In the fourth, four different Eagles had at least two field goals.

Torres came back into the contest and notched 10 points.

Sims and Richardson scored six apiece and Hunter Weber four more.

Morrison couldn’t keep up.

Roe finished with 19 while Schubert had 18.

Hennessey got 20 apiece from Sims and Richardson while Torres ended his night with 18 points.

Pawnee pulls away from HHS girls

Hennessey suffered two losses Thursday evening.

The Lady Eagles fell short in a 49-26 defeat to No. 17 Pawnee in a 2A regional semifinal at home.

During the game, Amiliey Tuell went down with a knee injury in the second period.

The extent of the injury wasn’t known at press time, but Tuell was unable to return.

Hennessey was down five points when she was injured and Pawnee started to pull away.

Pawnee got a conventional three-point play just before halftime to go up 10 points, then Emoree Fields made three 3-pointers for the visitors in the third quarter.

“We struggled to score against their length,” said coach Brian Richardson. “And they have two big posts that we have to account for, so it made it tougher on defense and we couldn’t score enough to keep up.”

Fields scored 16 points for Pawnee while Jaslene Garcia-Howell, one of those post players, added a gamehigh 23.

Hennessey was led by Emma Copeland’s eight points.

Hennessey played Hinton Friday afternoon (after press time) in an elimination game.