FORT WORTH, Texas — For Marshall Henderson, his return home and return to action for the Utah basketball team couldn't have gone much better than it did Wednesday night.
The native of Hurst, 15 minutes up the road, scored a career-high 24 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 5-of-7 from 3-point range to lead the Utes' victory.
" I wanted to come back and make an impact," said Henderson, who was coming off a one-game suspension. "I was playing in front of my friends and family, so I was really hoping that first shot would go in, and it did. Then the shots kept going in, and that was cool."
One of Henderson's younger sisters behind the Ute bench held up a sign that read, "We love our Ute #3 Henderson" every time he made a shot. He had fans scattered around the arena and spent a lot of time afterward making sure he talked to them all.
"They've all seen me do this since I was little," he said. "I really enjoyed playing in front of them."
Henderson asked coach Jim Boylen if the team could go early to the arena to warm up, so the Utes left their hotel at 5:10 instead of 5:30.
"He asked me before the game if we could go to the gym 20 minutes earlier than usual because he wanted to shoot more," said Boylen. "I love that about a guy. That's what good players do. He's a gym rat. That's why we recruited him, and I'm proud of him."
"I try to get to the games early, and I wanted to get here earlier because I thought I might have some nerves," Henderson said.
Henderson wasn't the only Ute who had local connections.
Brown, who was second in scoring with 13 points, had an uncle, aunt and some cousins watching.
Chris Hines, who scored four points in the first half, had about 10 come up from Houston to watch him play.
Shawn Glover, who went scoreless in eight minutes, and Matt Read, who didn't see action, are also from the Dallas area, and each had family and friends on hand as did Brian Burton, the Utes' graduate manager.
Thirty minutes after the game, Henderson was still in his uniform after visiting a bunch of his fans, talking on the postgame TV broadcast and the local radio broadcast.
As he left a group of newspaper writers, he said he had more people to see.
"I've knocked out about a half section, and I have about a half section to go," he said with a big smile.
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