What’s wrong with Matt Humphrey?

Another bad game for Humphrey, but Josh Crittle and Kevin Hicks stepped up to help Hales beat No. 20 Fenwick…

It’s hard to find a player in the junior class more highly-touted than Hales Franciscan’s Matt Humphrey. Just about every high-major university in the midwest is after the 6-5 forward’s services.

The problem is, right now, Humphrey is dead cold. Broke. He can’t hit anything. Luckily for the Spartans, Josh Crittle and Kevin Hicks stepped up and led Hales to a 56-47 win over visiting Fenwick on Tuesday.

Humphrey’s struggles continued Tuesday. He was 3 for 9 from the field, but two of those makes were layups.

The Spartans closed out the third quarter with a 7-0 run to take their first sizeable lead of the game at 39-34. Michael Black’s layup with 6:02 to play brought the Friars within two, but Hales responded with an 8-2 burst in which Hicks scored twice.

Crittle, who struggled in Hales loss to Farragut on Sunday, was in top form. He scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Hicks scored 14 and had 11 rebounds.

With both Crittle and Humphrey enduring early season struggles, Hales had dropped four consecutive games.

Junior Derek Tartt led Fenwick (5-1) with 10 points and six rebounds. Nick Caldicott scored nine points and John Comfort added seven for the No. 20 Friars.

Assistant coaches from Marquette, Wake Forest, Wisconsin and Stanford were on hand to watch Humphrey, Crittle and Fenwick’s highly-recruited sophomore Xavier Humphrey, who finished with five points and four rebounds.