Hennessey claims 3A district title wins

Hennessey enters this week’s regional tournament thanks to a win last week over a familiar foe.

The Lady Eagles defeated Harding Fine Arts for the third time this season, this time by a 65-39 margin at home Friday to win a Class 3A district championship.

Hennessey will host Chisholm at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in a regional semifinal. The remainder of the regional will be played at Millwood.

Two Lady Eagles scored in double figures in the team’s 10th win of the season and two more just missed it.

Kassidy Amburn scored 10 points in the first quarter alone as Hennessey got out to a 24-7 advantage.

Harding was able to cut its deficit by two points in the second quarter, but Hennessey continued to pull away throughout the second half.

Amburn finished her night with 17 points as she added seven in the third quarter.

Gracie Mills poured in another 15 points.

Meagan Tillman and Karlee McNulty scored nine points apiece as Hennessey improved to 10-13.

Eagles have no trouble with Firehawks

The Hennessey Eagles had met Harding Fine Arts twice before Friday’s matchup in their Class 3A district title game.

While Harding hadn’t exactly put a scare in the Eagles their two previous games, they also weren’t absolute Hennessey blowout wins.

This time around would count closer to the blowout variety.

The Eagles stayed in the winner’s bracket going into this week’s regional with a 71-40 home win against the Firehawks.

While Hennessey’s offense was solid - especially the last three quarters - it was the defense that got the Eagles the early lead.

Harding managed just 10 first-half points.

Hennessey took a sixpoint lead into the second quarter before exploding for a 27-5 run.

The Eagles made six of their 11 3-pointers during that spurt.

Juan Dominguez and Chris Tovar made two apiece in the second.

Dominguez eventually made four and finished with 18 points.

Tovar also knocked down four treys and scored 16 points.

Angel Rodriguez added nine points and Layton Choate eight.

The win upped Hennessey’s record to 18-5.

The Eagles play Riverside at 8 p.m. Thursday at home in a regional semifinal.

The two are actually tied for 12th in the coaches’ rankings. Hennessey and Riverside (21-5) both received 356 points in the most recent poll.