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| Wednesday, July 16 |
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| Two high school players top 100- point mark By Jeff Goodman SchoolSports.com | ||||||
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Camden High (N.J.) guard Dajuan Wagner became the first player in more than 20 years to hit the 100-point mark in a high school basketball game on Tuesday. Remarkably, Heritage Christian Academy (Texas) guard Cedric Hensley did one better. He scored 101 points on the very same day.
No high school basketball player had reached the 100-point plateau since Grandfield High's (Okla.) Kenneth Johnson did it in 1979. Wagner, a senior headed to the University of Memphis next season, poured in 100 points in Camden's 157-67 victory over Gloucester Township Technical School. Later on Tuesday night, Hensley topped Wagner's mark with a 101-point performance in a 178-28 rout of Banff Christian. Hensley's output was even more special considering he will miss two weeks because of a pre-scheduled testicular surgery on Friday. "The guys all said, 'Let's send Ced out right,'" said Heritage coach Jerome Tang. "If they didn't all buy into it, it wouldn't have happened. We have a real unselfish team." "My teammates kept encouraging me," said Hensley. "They told me how many points I had to go. I forgot to get the ball (after the game). It's at the other school because I didn't even think about it. I was just so tired." The 6-foot-4, 188-pound junior hit 46 of 59 shots from the field and only took five 3-pointers, making two of them. Most of his shots were layups. "He can shoot it from the outside, but he was able to get to the rim, so he did," said Tang. "He had a lot of breakaways." Hensley is receiving interest from Arkansas, Oregon, Houston and Oklahoma, but his performance was somewhat overshadowed by Wagner, the nation's top guard. Wagner, who was averaging better than 40 points per game coming into Tuesday's contest, cracked the 50-point barrier for the fifth time in 10 games this season. He had 46 points at halftime and 72 entering the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-3 Wagner, who was 42-for-60 from the field, also broke the state and school marks for points in a single game. He connected on 10 3-pointers to break the school record, which was set by Greg Barr in 1994. His father, former Louisville star and NBA guard Milt Wagner, is on coach John Calipari's staff at Memphis and was on his way back to Tennessee when he was informed of the news. "I just came from there and saw the game on Monday against St. Augustine," said Milt. "I called (Dajuan) after the game last night and he told me that he didn't set out to do it, but he looked up and saw he was on pace to get 100 points. Once they saw he was on pace, they started getting him the ball." Wagner had 90 points three minutes into the final quarter. "I told him I was going to play him only three minutes of the fourth quarter," Camden coach Glen Jackson told the Courier Post. "But after just three minutes he was up to 90, and he asked if he could stay in until he hit 100. "He has never asked me before to stay in a game to achieve a personal goal," added Jackson. "For all he has done for our program, I just couldn't refuse him. If any negativity comes out of this, I will accept full responsibility." Wagner is considered the top point guard in the nation and has maintained that he will attend Memphis next season despite rumors that he will bypass college and head straight to the NBA. "He's coming to college," said Milt. "He knows he needs to go to college for at least one or two years to polish his game. There's no doubt that physically he has the ability to go to the league, but he still has a lot to learn, and Coach Calipari will help prepare him for the next level."
Material from SchoolSports.com.Visit their web site at www.schoolsports.com | |
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