Prep Hoops: Harrisburg can't overcome turnovers, Titans
Anytime Harrisburg had a run in them Wednesday night, that run was always derailed.
More times than not, the switch of the tracks was because of turnovers and despite a late run at the 13th Annual Ernie Bozarth Memorial Tournament, the Bulldogs fell 74-68 to Confluence Prep Academy out of St. Louis.
In all, Harrisburg had 26 turnovers, 15 in the first half as they fell behind 38-25 at halftime and 11 in the second half as they fought back from a 16-point deficit to get to within as many as three points with under a minute to go.
As much as Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters didn't want to admit it, one his concerns coming in Wednesday night was going to be turnovers.
"It really did contribute to the hole we dug ourselves in the first half and into the second half. We were able to come back from that, we got better, we played harder and when you can fight back from 20 and get it to within six and really have some opportunities late, it was a pretty good effort and I think that's the part I'd like to focus on the first game out and it was the first game out."
The basketball game was half track meet and half hockey match in the frantic, fast-paced action inside Murphysboro High School.
Harrisburg trailed 13-5 midway through the first before closing the gap and knotting the score at 16-all after one quarter of play.
The Bulldogs' (0-1) achilles heel all night were turnovers, but never more evident in the second quarter when Harrisburg had six straight miscues before even crossing half court, resulting in a 12-point swing as the Titans took a 28-16 lead with 5:50 to play and forcing Smithpeters to call a timeout.
Smithpeters maintains that it was more what Harrisburg did with the basketball, as opposed to what Confluence made the Bulldogs do with the basketball.
"I still think it's our choice and there were things we didn't do that we were supposed to be doing that created those situations for us," he said. "You have to take care of the basketball and down the stretch when we had some opportunities, we'd make two passes and throw it away and instead of being down six, you are down eight. We had a couple of situations where we didn't rebound on a missed free throw, they get the board, run more time off the clock and then get more free throws. It's the little things that you have to do to win close games like this. We cannot dig a 20-point hole and expect to get out of that."
After trailing 54-37 following the conclusion of the third period, Harrisburg caught fire in the fourth quarter, going 10-of-15 from the floor and getting to within three, 67-64 after a Jordan Gould free throw with under a minute to play.
"I am happy there were able to put the effort in and had a little more quality play to get themselves back in it. I asked them about what the difference was between when things were good and when things were bad and they answered it with 'we played hard' and that's a great thing to learn right there."
Gould had 10 points in that fourth quarter run and finished with 14 points on the night, while Isaiah Saulsberry and Noah Ferrell shared team-high scoring honors as both had 19 points on the night.
Gould and Saulsberry both finished with a double-double as Gould grabbed 11 rebounds and Saulsberry had 10.
Carson Burtis scored seven for Harrisburg, while Hunter Smith chipped in with six points and Jordan Bartok tacked on three points to round out the scoring for Harrisburg.
Confluence Prep was led by three players in double figures as Leon Perry, a 6-foot-6 junior had a game-high 27 points. Brandon Fredrick added 18 points and James Kern scored 15.
The loss was the first time Harrisburg had lost a season opener for the first time since 2009-10 season when the Bulldogs fell to Carmi-White County in the Harrisburg Invitational.
Harrisburg returns to the Ernie Bozarth Tournament Friday, where they will take on the host Murphysboro in a 7:45 p.m. game and cap off the week Saturday taking on Roosevelt at 7:45 p.m.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Confluence Prep 74
Harrisburg 68
Harrisburg (0-1)
Name FG 3-pt FT Reb PF TP
Gould 5-9 0-0 4-6 11 4 14
Smith 2-8 0-4 2-3 2 2 6
Saulsberry 7-16 2-5 3-3 10 4 19
Bartok 1-1 0-0 1-1 2 3 3
Ferrell 8-10 2-3 1-3 7 1 19
Burtis 3-5 1-3 0-0 1 1 7
Hefner 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Doss 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Russ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 26-50 5-15 10-16 33 18 68
Confluence Prep (1-0)
Name FG 3-pt FT Reb PF TP
Brickhouse 3-7 3-5 0-2 3 3 9
Gregory 1-2 0-1 3-5 1 3 5
Fredrick 8-20 2-8 0-3 5 11 18
Perry 10-18 1-3 6-10 8 3 27
Kern 5-10 1-4 4-6 6 4 15
Latimore 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Pitts 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Ferguson 0-0 0-0 0-0 3 2 0
Totals 27-59 7-21 13-26 26 19 74
Score By Quarters
Confluence Prep 16 22 16 18 - 74
Harrisburg 16 09 12 31 - 68