Bulldogs struggle out of gate against Steeleville
With a new team intact, Randy Smithpeters' rebuilding job began Monday night in a 20-point 61-41 loss to Steeleville on the opening night of the Ernie Bozarth Memorial Tournament at Murphysboro High School.
Harrisburg never led and fell behind by 10 points in the first quarter and despite tying the game at 10, the Warriors held a double-digit lead most of the game and banged home 10 3-pointers on the night.
Bulldogs head coach Randy Smithpeters acknowledged the first game out of the gate and the anxiety that comes with it but noted that his squad is going to have to tighten the bolts on the defensive end.
"I thought we did a decent job in some aspects of defending," Smithpeters said. "They ended up with 61 points, but a lot of that came late and we kind of had to scramble at the end and we gave up a lot of points that we wouldn't have if we would've been in a different situation. Other parts of defending we have to get better at. We need to recognize people and adjust to that. It was the first game."
Offensively, Harrisburg struggled as well, shooting 53 percent from the field (15-for-28), 22 percent from 3-point range (2-for-9) and 52 percent from the foul line (9-for-17).
The Bulldogs (0-1) put one player in double figures as Darion Barners scored 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting and the Carrier Mills-Stonefort transfer went 0-for-5 from the foul line.
Will Gibbs netted nine points for Harrisburg and Will Sanders added eight points. Jesse Lawler scored seven points, while Zayne Hayes, Connor Phalin and Andrew Bittle all had two points.
Austin Hagel had a game-high 23 points and the 6-foot junior knocked down six 3-pointers for the Warriors and two other players scored nine points.
From an offensive standpoint, Smithpeters noted the shots his team attempted weren't bad shots, but the execution does need some work.
"Our weakness is making shots. I don't know that we shot very many bad shots, but we didn't make very many shots. That's been our tendency in the pre-season and something we need to fix."
Du Quoin Invitational
Du Quoin 60, Gallatin County 52
Gallatin County put two players in double figures as the Hawks dropped a 60-52 contest to Du Quoin Monday night at the Du Quoin Invitational.
Dawson Hish had a game-high 20 points, while Garrett Rushing put in 17 points for the Hawks (1-1) in the loss. Audie Goebel netted nine points and Robbie Prince scored six points.
Du Quoin got a team-high 15 points from Braeden Pursell and another 13 points from Kaiden Mays.
Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.