Bulldogs creep past Du Quoin
Isaiah Saulsberry was the Bulldog to watch out for when the Harrisburg basketball team (9-1) traveled to Du Quoin. The Indians (3-5) knew they needed to shut him down and for the most part, they did.
"He (Saulsberry) didn't make a shot outside the paint other than at the line tonight," said Indians' coach Justin Barrington. "That's a credit to Shamar (Adams), he its a tremendous defender. He's shown that it's nice to have that asset to our ball club in terms of knowing we have someone that can shut down one of their top scorers."
With Saulsberry defended well, that left room on the floor for other Bulldogs to pick up the slack. One in particular was Dalton Lambert who tallied 24 points in the Bulldogs close, 57-55, win over the Indians.
"My opinion before we played was that Du Quoin is a very good team," said Bulldogs' coach Randy Smithpeters. "Tay (Lamontay Daughtery) is a great player, he proved that the first half. We did a little better job the second half with guarding him. Overall we made some good decisions. We had a few bad ones, but luckily we did not have to dig out from under them."
The host Indians ran out to an early lead in the first quarter with help from sophomore Daughtery, who scored 13 of his 22 total points. He added six more in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs fought back and briefly took the lead (24-22) before halftime.
But at the buzzer, Daughtery was fouled and he drained two free throw shots to knot the score at 24 points apiece before heading into the locker room.
Back in the action, the Bulldogs adjusted to shut down Daughtery offensively. He scored only three points for the remainder of the game.
"Our guys on the outside were getting clean looks," Barrington said. "They put three on Tay so he was taken away, but our other guys were freed up and took good shots that they were able to hit."
Meanwhile, Lambert went to work for the visiting team. In the first half, he scored only 10 points for the Bulldogs. In the third quarter, he tallied 11 buckets including a field goal at the beginning of the half to give the lead to the team in purple.
The Bulldogs clung to their lead and eventually padded it to nine points (50-41) going into the final quarter.
Late in the contest, the Indians began chipping away at the Bulldogs' lead and with a last minute field goal from Adams, they came to within one point (56-55) with 15 seconds left to play. Just enough time to steal the lead.
Then, the Bulldogs' Blake Drue was sent to the free throw line where he drained one of two free throws.
Now down by two, the Indians hoped to force overtime with 10 seconds to go.
Sophomore Braeden Pursell was the one to put up the final shot for the home team. But the shot came up short and the Bulldogs took home the victory.
"We had a chance, it just didn't go down for us. Sometimes that happens," Barrington said. "We dug ourselves into too big a hole in the third. We just couldn't get back from it. Our guys did a good job defensively in the fourth. They (Harrisburg) were in the bonus for the entire of the quarter and only scored one field goal."
Lambert led the Bulldogs with 24 points. Following him were: Saulsberry (13 points), Drue (11 points), Will Gibbs (six points) and Carson Burtis (three points).
The Indians point scorers were: Daughtery (22 points), Pursell (12 points), Josh Heape (10 points), Hank Stewart (five points), Adams (four points), and Ashton Smith (two points).
"Sometimes we get in too big of a hurry, but we were able to survive," Smithpeters said. "They (Du Quoin) play with a lot of intensity. They put on the pressure and we had too many turnovers tonight. That can create problems, but we adjusted and got through it."
Harrisburg 55 Massac County 43
Harrisburg 12 12 15 16 - 55
Massac Co. 15 08 12 08 - 43
Harrisburg (55): Drue 2 2-2 6, Saulsberry 8 2-3 21, Lambert 5 1-1 12, Bartok 4 4-6 12, Gibbs 1 2-2 4. Totals: 20 11-14 55.
Massac County (43): Taylor 4 0-0 11, Burgess 3 0-0 6, Thompson 8 1-3 17, Vickers 1 2-2 5, Lee 2 0-0 4. Totals: 18 3-5 43.
3-pointers: HBG 4 (Saulsberry 3, Lambert), MCHS 4 (Taylor 3, Vickers). Team Fouls: HBG 14, Massac 16.
Harrisburg 57 Du Quoin 55
Harrisburg 14 10 23 10 - 57
Du Quoin 17 07 15 16 - 55
Harrisburg (57): Burtis 1 1-1 3, Drue 3 5-8 11, Saulsberry 3 7-9 13, Lambert 10 3-3 24, Gibbs 1 4-7 6. Totals: 18 20-28 57.
Du Quoin (55): Smith 1 0-0 2, Daughtery 6 9-12 22, Adams 1 2-2 4, Stewart 2 1-5 5, Pursell 5 0-1 12, Heape 3 2-5 10. Totals: 18 14-25 55.
3-pointers: HBG 1 (Lambert), DQ 5 (Pursell 2, Heape 2, Daughtery). Team Fouls: HBG 18, DQ 24.