Henry's hot hand helps Zion-Benton edge Warren

Zion-Benton senior Damarquis Henry sported a new look Saturday night in the Zee-Bees' North Suburban Conference road contest at Warren.

And the clean-shaven head Henry sported was as smooth as his game against the Devils.

Long-range shooting has always been Henry's calling card, and it was a big key in the Zee-Bees' 59-56 win over Warren. He scored a season-best 28 points - just 3 off his career-high - and had 12 points in the final quarter.

"It's not so much that we look on me to produce as it was my teammates found me in the right spot at the right time," said Henry, who hit on 6 of 8 from deep. "That's why we work so well as a team."

Zion-Benton (10-4, 4-2) built the lead to as many as 7 points in the final quarter and held a 54-49 advantage with 2:03 left before Warren made a run of its own.

Jordan Litke started the burst with a putback. Then Declan O'Connor took a perfect feed from Jayson Dorsey and the Devils were within 54-53 with 1:53 to go.

"We had a couple of nice steals defensively and hit a few big shots and that got us back in the game," O'Connor said. "Those plays really energized us and made it a close game at the end."

O'Connor had his game working early, scoring 11 of his 17 points in the first half in helping the Blue Devils pull within 26-23 at the break.

"Declan had it going tonight," said Warren coach Jon Jasnoch. "With the way he had things going, I would have liked to have seen us get him a few more touches."

Warren and Zion traded buckets down the stretch with Juwan Perry and Henry trading 3-pointers.

"They knocked down shots at the end there and we didn't," Jasnoch said. "Our offensive execution down the stretch and shot selection needs to be a bit better. We had the look we wanted there, and it just didn't fall for us."

Warren (7-10, 1-5) started the final quarter on a 10-2 run that brought the Devils again to within 1 point. Perry, who led Warren with 18 points, completed a 3-point play just before the quarter ended to pull the Devils to within 41-40 with a quarter left.

Rather than panic in a tight game, Zion chose to play with patience and poise - and, of course, the red-hot hand of Henry.

"Our patience was paramount," said Zion-Benton coach Bob Worthington. "We worked on that for weeks and it was good to see the fruits of our labor pay off there at the end like that."

Henry and his new clean-shaven look may have helped some, too.

"I told him I am going to pay for his next haircut," Worthington said with a smile.

Rod Henry-Hayes added 15 points to help pace the Zee-Bees.