By Stephen Buus
Skyline, MO – Friday was Courtwarming Night at Skyline High School, and while many happy cheers and applause were bestowed on Sierra Rutherford upon being named queen, it was a Skyline alum who prevented the hometown fans from enjoying the main event.
Derold Henderson, Skyline Class of 2009, returned to his old stomping grounds for the first time as a visiting head coach and guided the Stockton Tigers to a 49-32 Mid-Lakes Conference victory over the Skyline Tigers.
Stockton (9-9, 1-1), whose tallest regular players stand just 6-foot-2, had struggled most of the season against teams with bigger men, and Coach Ryan Yates of Skyline (11-6, 1-1) hoped that trend would continue with the presence of 6-5 junior Marshall Cox. But Henderson unveiled a wide and aggressive 2-1-2 zone defense which forced Skyline to keep the basketball on the perimeter, and resulting in very few shots taken, let alone made. Stockton led 22-7 at halftime and Skyline didn’t break double figures as a team until early in the third quarter.
“We really turned up the defensive pressure today,” said Henderson. “We’ve been working on some zone action, some zone defense, and we’re trying to buy into learning how to play it a little bit. Tonight we played with a really good effort and it showed in the scorebook…
“[The wide zone] makes the next pass hard,” Henderson explained. “And it gives us opportunities to trap and pressure in the halfcourt. Ultimately, we want to get out and run in the open floor, so we want to force some turnovers and this gives us that opportunity. Occasionally we might give up a wide-open basket, but more often than not that doesn’t happen. We get deflections and tips and that leads to easy offense.”
Sophomore Clayton Hubbard led Stockton with 16 points. When he wasn’t slashing and driving through the paint, he was taking bullet passes from junior point guard Jake Wheeler for easy layups. Senior Skyler Fishburn had a steady night with 11 points as he cashed in a couple of times on the back end of Stockton’s press-breaker while sophomore Gannon Kenney chipped in with 9.
“For a conference game on the road, this was our best effort from top to bottom,” said Henderson.
For Skyline, freshman Dax Beem was the high scorer with just 8 points. Cox was held to 6 points—all in the third quarter—while dealing with foul trouble most of the night.
Stockton continues Mid-Lakes Conference action on Tuesday as they visit state-ranked Marionville. Skyline travels to Point Lookout to challenge School of the Ozarks that same evening.
Stockton 12 10 12 15—49
Skyline 5 2 14 10—32
Stockton: Clayton Hubbard 16, Skyler Fishburn 11, Gannon Kenney 9, Drew Wheeler 7, Jake Wheeler 3, Justin Pfeifer 2, Connor Brown 1.
Skyline: Dax Beem 8, Marshall Cox 6, Shawn Bryan 4, Brant Gideon 4, Garrett Wisdom 3, Chris Logan 2, Gage Gunter 2, Paden Hodges 2.
