After a redshirt year and then a season coming off the bench, she was a main cog on last year’s 10-22 team and she could have used that personal production as a ticket to go elsewhere like a couple of her teammates did.
Instead, she came back at WSU for her senior season.
“I think there’s something to be said about staying in a program,” she said. “The portal is awesome and people are hopping all around, but I think building trust and helping build a program, there’s something to be said for that. Plus, I just respect and like a lot of people here.”
After a speech like that Raiders’ coach Kari Hoffman might want to hand her the MVP award for the season right now.
Certainly what the 5-foot-10 guard did in the fourth quarter against Oakland Wednesday night at the Nutter Center would support that.
The Raiders — who were coming off a tough Thanksgiving trip to Florida where they lost two games and their post player for the season — had trailed most of the game and were down eight, 49-41, at the start of the final period.
“She’s just someone who gives you her all every night, every possession,” Hoffman said. “She never gives up. No matter what the play is, what the score is, or where we’re at in the game, she feels she can turn it around.”
And in a two and a half minute span midway through the fourth quarter that’s what she did.
With her team still down by six, Henson blocked an Oakland lay-up attempt, then hit a jump shot in the paint, was fouled, and made the free throw to cut the lead to three.
After two more defensive rebounds, she scored on a fast break to cut the lead to one. Soon after she made the assist on Oliva Brown’s three pointer that put the Raiders ahead with 3:39 left.
Henson would finish with a double double; 17 points and 10 rebounds.
“Tonight, her teammates saw her production and said, ‘I want to jump in, too,’” Hoffman said. “I’m proud of her for that leadership.”
As a co-captain, that’s part of her job though she does it by on-the-court example, not off the floor vocalization.
“I know my coaches would like me to speak more, but I try to lead by my play,” she said.
Henson now leads the 5-5 team in rebounding (8.4 per game) and blocked shots and is second in scoring (11.9 ppg), assists and steals.
Her inside presence is especially critical since the Raiders lost 6-foot-3 senior Chloe Chard Peloquin to worsening ankle problems after the November 24 Ohio University game.
“She had ankle problems this season and she got a couple of (medical) opinions,” Hoffman said. “One option was surgery, but she chose to try to play through it. But the more she tried, the more stress she put on it and the worse it got.
“Finally, she realized she needed the surgery…now.”
With Chard Peloquin gone, the Raiders were left with just two inexperienced players on the roster who were over 6 feet:
Grace Okih is a 6-foot-2 redshirt junior transfer from Jacksonville College, a junior college in Texas.
And Florrie Cotterill is a 6-2 sophomore from Lee-on-the-Solent, England. She’s currently wearing a knee brace for a strain she recently suffered and averages just 9.4 minutes and 1 point a game.
Okih, who is still adapting to the pace and intensity of the Division I game, was in foul trouble early Wednesday. So was Abbie Riddle, a 5-foot-10 guard who transferred two years ago from Canisius and now is coming off the bench and being asked to play in the post.
The Raiders needed a fulltime presence inside against the taller Grizzlies Wednesday night and Henson gave it to them. Sometimes, too much.
With 19 seconds left in the game she aggressively pushed an Oakland player in the back on a rebound attempt and was whistled for a technical.
“I pushed her,” she fessed up afterward. “I just tried a little too hard attacking the paint for a rebound.”
That temporary short circuit didn’t get her pulled from the game.
“You don’t need to take her off the floor,” Hoffman said. “She’ll give her all until she has to crawl.”
Hoffman touched on that once before when we talked:
“Claire Henson is just someone you want on the floor and on your team no matter what.”
And that too is permanence.
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