PREP BOYS HOOPS: Bulldogs grab hold of 20th win

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Harrisburg improved to 20-4 on the season and took over sole possession of first place in the River-to-River Conference Ohio Division with a 51-38 win over Murphysboro Friday night at Davenport Gymnasium.

It was a first half that belonged to Capel Henshaw and even more importantly, a first half that decided Friday night's contest for the Bulldogs.

Henshaw started the game 6-of-6 from the field, as the Harrisburg junior drilled three 3-pointers en route to a 22-point performance.

Harrisburg jumped out to a 18-13 first quarter lead and then outscored Murphysboro 21-13 in the second stanza to take a 39-26 lead into the locker room.

The second half, however, wasn't as sharp for either team, but especially Harrisburg as they scored just four third quarter points in retaining a 43-32 lead going into the game's final eight minutes of play.

Despite just eight points in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs were able to get Murphysboro at arms length by using time management with the clock as the Red Devils finished up a fourth quarter where they shot 3-of-11 from the field and 0-of-4 from the foul stripe.

Pierre House led Murphysboro with 13 points, while Steven Eldridge came off the bench to tack on 10 points.

Kyle Miller chipped in with six for Murphysboro (16-6, 2-4), while Brant Hill and Zane Heller each had two points.

Harrisburg got their 20th-win season for the third straight year and the fifth time in the last six years.

Bulldog head coach Randy Smithpeters, who is in his 19th year at Harrisburg, has coached 12 of his teams to 20 wins or more during his tenure.

He said its always priority No.1 at the start of the season when talking about team goals.

"One of our team goals at the beginning of the season was to win 20 games. I'm very happy with that at this time of the season and I'm very happy with a conference win that will likely be important, just not tonight, but possibly more important a few weeks from now when the conference race comes to an end."