Five Takeaways: Frederick Douglass at Henry Clay
As we creep towards February, district contests are heating up and that trend continued on Thursday night at Henry Clay as Frederick Douglass traveled across town to do battle with the ever-improving Blue Devils. It was a game of runs where Clay ended up beating Douglass by a final score of 67-50 and defending home court.
1. Douglass is starting to spiral downward. Including their Friday night beatdown at the hands of Scott County, Douglass has now dropped 4 in a row. The Broncos are 1-5 in district play and 4-7 against 11th region competition. Coach Young’s team is very young and extremely inexperienced and it is starting to show down the stretch of the season.
2. This game was over before it started. I was able to get to the game early enough to see about 20 minute worth of warm-ups and the difference between the two teams was clear. Douglass was smiling, laughing, trying to dunk everything and generally looked like they weren’t ready to compete against district foes. On the other hand, Henry Clay was going through warm-ups like they were on a mission to decimate the visiting team and that’s exactly what they did for most of the 32 minutes.
3. When the tempo picked up in the second half, Douglass showed their potential. Coach Kurt Young switched it up to start the second half with a mixture of run and jump and 1-2-2 pressure that caused Clay trouble. The Broncos went on a run and cut the game down to a 9 point deficit before a couple missed calls went Clay’s way and essentially ended the Douglass run. Credit Keaston Brown and the Devils with handling the pressure in the 4th quarter and putting the game away.
4. Keaston Brown is the engine that makes Henry Clay go. Brown handles the ball for Henry Clay for the vast majority of every game and does so with composure. He’s able to split double teams and get to the rim. Brown is going to be a steal for a school like Bellarmine. If Keaston were a little taller or a little quicker, he would be on the radar for lots of small D1 schools. Regardless of level, Keaston Brown should be going to college for free in a couple of years.
5. Marques Warrick moved up about 20 spots in our rankings and is still underrated. Like most sophomores in Kentucky, Warrick’s ceiling ultimately relies on if he will keep growing but the smooth lefty scored 24 points for the Devils and nailed 4 three pointers in the first half. A lot of his offense came off of drive and kicks from Brown, as Marques keeps developing his game, he could crack the top 10 in our 2020 rankings. He’s certainly one to watch.