Waves’ Henry has homecoming

There’s nothing like the pressure of returning home to play in front of family and friends — especially when the opponent happens to be Kansas University.

However, Pepperdine’s Jarrad Henry was able to overcome those pressures in his return to the Midwest and finished with a career night.

“There was pressure, but I tried not to think about it. I just tried to go out and play hard,” said Henry, who played in front of more than 75 supporters. “The pressure was there, but you try not to think about it.”

The Roeland Park Miege product set career-highs with 10 rebounds and five blocked shots in a 63-43 loss Monday to KU in Allen Fieldhouse.

Pepperdine’s leading rebounder eased the pressure early with a dunk for his first points.

“Any time you get a blocked shot, a big rebound, (or) a dunk, it can ease your nerves and makes it easier to play after that,” Henry said. “But I knew the game wasn’t over, and I kept that in mind afterward.”

Pepperdine coach Paul Westphal said he was impressed with the dunk by Henry, but said offense wasn’t Henry’s forte.

“It was a nice play by him. It’s a little early in his career right now to expect him to be a scorer,” Westphal said. “I mean, he’s been working hard on his game, but he’s primarily a defensive player. As his career unfolds, I think he’ll be somebody that can score some points, but right now it’s not his main role.”

Despite a career game, Henry said he was disappointed by his performance.

“I’m not satisfied with 10 rebounds, and that’s something I’m going to have to work on, getting into position and getting rebounds,” the 6-foot-11 center said. “Ten rebounds — I would like to grab 15, average 15. Ten rebounds is OK, but I want to grab 15 a game.”

Henry’s presence down low helped Pepperdine hold Kansas to its second-lowest offensive output for the season.

“I just tried to clog up the middle, tried to be as big a presence as I possibly could be,” Henry said. “I basically just used my body to make it tough for them, kind of get them out of synch with their offense.”

The Waves’ sophomore center played all but two minutes in the matchup with the Jayhawks.

“We needed Jarrad to play a lot of minutes, because we’ve got two big kids that would be playing a lot of minutes, (but) are home,” Westphal said. “He responded real well. He doesn’t give away anything defensively, he’s hard to score on, and he did a good job rebounding and blocked five shots.

“Offensively, he couldn’t get it going. But I was happy with Jarrad.”

Though he was close to home, it wasn’t a real homecoming for the young defensive threat.

“When I was in high school, I never came to a Kansas game. I lived on the Missouri side,” Henry said. “So I always went to Mizzou games.”

Briefly recruited by Missouri, Henry said he immediately knew Pepperdine would be where he would land when he left high school.

“I didn’t take any other visits because I kind of fell in love with Pepperdine,” Henry said. “That was my first visit, and so I just felt so comfortable with Pepperdine, I didn’t bother to take any other visits.”

Henry said he wouldn’t mind getting another crack at Kansas.

“Hopefully, later on down the line we can play them again and give them a run for their money,” Henry said.