Harrisburg's season continues with win over Carmi-White Co.
By MICHAEL DANN<br />mdann@dailyregister.com<br />HARRISBURG - At the risk of being dramatic, Harrisburg was playing like its season was on the line.<br />It was Tuesday night, playing Carmi-White County in a loser-goes-home regional semifinal at Eldorado High School.<br />Thanks to some fourth quarter heroics by Harrisburg, they live to play another day, earning a 45-40 win over Carmi-White County and will now play the host Eagles on Friday night at 7 p.m.<br />Harrisburg led at the end of every quarter in a game that featured five lead changes and three ties.<br />The win broke a string of five straight losses for Randy Smithpeters and company, who were more than excited to extend their season.<br />"I'm very happy with our performance," Smithpeters said. "There were a lot of things that we had to do to give ourselves a chance. But on both ends of the court, I thought we were very patient, which is something we strive to do much of the year and often times haven't done a very good job of. Tonight, we took care of the ball better, which is something we knew we had to do tonight and something we know we have to do Friday night to give ourselves any chance.<br />"I thought we defended well, especially some of their better players and I thought we made good decisions down the stretch, which is something we have had a problem with in close games in the past."<br />Harrisburg led 14-11 after one quarter and held a 23-16 lead over CWC in the second quarter, before closing out the first half up 25-21.<br />In the third quarter, Carmi got as close as one point on a couple of possessions, but on each occasion, Harrisburg had an answer each time.<br />Jordan Gould had a bucket to put the lead to 31-20 after the Bulldogs got to within one and after Carmi's Jake Simon made it 31-30, Isaiah Saulsberry drilled a 3-pointer to give Harrisburg a 34-30 lead.<br />Harrisburg closed out the third quarter up 37-30 and made things interesting in the fourth as the Bulldogs shot 2-of-5 from the field and 4-of-6 from the foul stripe, while committing six turnovers.<br />Carmi couldn't close however, outscoring Harrisburg 10-8, but had five turnovers of their own and shot 5-of-8 from the field.<br />Travis Black's bucket with 3:15 to play made it 39-38, but again Gould was there for Harrisburg to push the advantage back to three points.<br />In the final 23 seconds, Hunter Smith and Saulsberry each made a pair of free throws, making good on a pair of one-and-one's the two missed earlier to help Harrisburg seal the deal.<br />Saulsberry led Harrisburg with 19 points, while Noah Ferrell knocked down nine points. Gould added eight in the win, while Jordan Bartok finished with five and Hunter Smith flipped in four points.<br />Harrisburg will look for its first regional championship since the 2013-14 season, while Eldorado is looking for its first plaque since the 2004-05 campaign. <br /><br /><em>Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.</em>