Sophomore center Ivy Henderson is glad she isn’t forced to sit in boredom anymore. So is Crown Point.
A summer injury had cost the 6-foot-4 Henderson most of her freshman seasons in two sports, relegating her to an unenjoyable view of the action from the bench.
“I was supposed to be back for basketball, but they told me that I had to be out for longer,” she said. “I was still going to practices and games, but it was just really boring sitting on the sidelines.”
With a clean bill of health, Henderson has been a force inside for the Bulldogs (12-11), who will play Hammond Central in a Class 4A Crown Point Sectional opener on Tuesday. She’s averaging 11.8 points and leads the team with 138 rebounds and 34 blocks.
Henderson also was an effective middle blocker for Crown Point’s girls volleyball team during the fall season, pacing the 4A regional champion with 58 blocks and recording 112 kills.
Crown Point girls basketball coach Chris Seibert said Henderson makes an impact at both ends of the court when she’s at her best.
“She affects the game in so many different ways, whether that’s scoring or rebounding or blocking shots,” Seibert said. “And even more than the blocked shots, it’s the ones that she alters near the rim because in the back of their minds they know she’s coming.”
Seibert said he believes Henderson is capable of being an even bigger scoring threat.
“We’ve been trying to get her to be a little more selfish, to look for her shots,” Seibert said. “She’s a very good passer, but there have been times throughout the year when we’ve watched the film and told her she made a nice pass but what we really need her to do is score.”
Teammates like freshman guard Ava Richie, who has played AAU basketball with Henderson for the past three summers, know what she can do with the ball in her hands. Richie pointed out that Henderson has the best field-goal percentage on the team at 65.9% (118 for 179).
“We’ve been encouraging her to score more because we know she’s capable of it,” Richie said. “She’s gotten a lot better at going up with the ball and being more confident around the rim.”
Henderson said a lot of her success this season is built on extra cardio work she did in preparation for the full two-sport school year she didn’t get to experience as a freshman after she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her back in August 2023.
“I had a bunch of back pain during workouts, and it hurt to get out of bed in the morning,” she said. “I figured that wasn’t normal.”
Henderson played in six volleyball matches during her freshman season before she was sidelined by the injury. She was initially told she’d be out for only a short period of time.
“They told me it was going to be a couple of weeks,” she said. “But it just wouldn’t get better, and it kept bothering me, so I had to be out longer.”
That turned into the rest of volleyball season and all but one game of basketball season. Henderson was finally cleared for AAU basketball a few weeks after Crown Point’s season ended.
Henderson, who intends to play AAU basketball and club volleyball in the offseason, said she hasn’t considered dropping a sport.
“I don’t think I’ll worry about that until college,” she said. “I’ve really liked volleyball. It’s a lot of fun to play. And with basketball, I’ve played it my whole life, so why would I give up on it now?”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
