The Harrisburg High School girls basketball team closed out their regular season home schedule with a 52-47 win against the Benton Rangerettes on Wednesday night. Seniors Kelsey Piche (18 points, 8 rebounds) and Blaine Bundren (12 points, 5 assists, 2 steals) paced the Lady Bulldogs’ victorious night.
Fellow senior Molly Berry chipped in with six points of her own as well, while Autumn Twardowski and Teryn Dewar were tabbed to start Wednesday’s game and played three quality minutes.
Unlike Berry, Bundren and Piche, Senior Night presented a special opportunity for Twardowski and Dewar, who joined the varsity club for the first time in their high school careers this season. Neither player had played organized basketball since eighth grade.
“I hadn’t played since eighth grade, so starting to play again this year has just been fun to be around everybody again and play basketball,” Dewar said. “I think just getting to play is fun.”
Twardowski said one of her favorite moments of this season is whenever she’s on the bench with her teammates.
“I like the bench, it is pretty fun down there,” Twardowski explained. “We’re a bunch of dorks pretty much, but it has fun being around the team.”
Twardowski scored her first points as a varsity member in a win against Galatia on Dec. 21. The bucket provided a personal highlight and the opportunity to have fun at the expense of her brother, who was visiting from out of town.
“We convinced my brother that was my 1,000th point and that we didn’t know why they didn’t stop the game,” Twardowski said. “I told him they didn’t stop the game because I told (the team) I wanted them to stop the game for me on Senior Night.”
Piche reminisced about her early days as a Lady Bulldog, including scoring her first points on a buzzer-beating half-court shot.
It was a moment Piche said that sent her older brother into a frenzy. And while few moments can top nailing a half court shot as your first career basket, the 5-foot-10-inch senior fondly remembers her first victory led by former head coach Steve Vinyard.
“I think it was freshman year before we won our first game against Galatia, before we ran out we were all in the locker room and Steve put on “Proud Mary” and he busts out with the real low voice and started singing,” Piche said. “And we all belted out in song and sang the entire song and we ended up winning my first game as a Harrisburg High School Lady Dog. I’ll never forget that.”
Vinyard, who now is the head coach of the Gallatin County eighth grade boys basketball team and an assistant for Robert “Radar” Patton’s Gallatin County Hawks, said he enjoyed the time he spent with the Lady Bulldogs as well.
“I remember how they’ve come along from since they were freshmen,” Vinyard said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “They were a fun group of girls, and I miss them immensely.”
