Prep Hoops: Play-In, Play On
As rewarding as it was for Wade Thomas' Johnston City High School bunch to beat Eldorado Monday night, the turn around is going to be a quick one for the Indians.
After dispatching the Eagles 63-58 at Monday night's Harrisburg Class 2A Regional, Johnston City gets a short amount of time to celebrate its win as it now prepares for tonight's matchup against No. 1 seeded and defending Class 2A State Champions, Harrisburg Tuesday back at Davenport Gymnasium.
Thomas admitted his team is 1-0 in the post season, but also recognizes a start like Monday night will not be beneficial to his ballclub against the Bulldogs.
"We're going to have to have the playing with pride, playing smart, executing on both ends (Tuesday) because we're going up against a great basketball team. If we do those things, we can end up being there. If we get off to a start like we had (Monday) it will be kind of tough."
Johnston City (17-11) got behind the 8-ball early against Eldorado as the Eagles soared out to a 12-4 start en route to a 17-10 first quarter lead.
The Eagles, playing the more aggressive role on both ends of the court, forced the Indians into 11 first half turnovers and 39 percent shooting from the floor as they took a 25-22 lead into the locker room.
Eldorado (9-18) head coach Joe Clark said getting stops early on was crucial to his Eagles building their lead.
"We had a nice start and the last time we played them we had a nice start," Clark said. "When you can get stops against them, you're able to push the ball in transition. They're not a particularly strong transition-defense team. We did that early, but when we didn't get stops late in the game, it reflected on our end."
Johnston City kept chipping away at the Eldorado lead and got to within one-point twice early in the third quarter. Jake Davison put the Indians up for the first time with a bucket at the 4:45 mark as JC took a 28-27 lead.
Tyler Deaton responded for the Eagles, regaining the lead on a jumper to make it 29-28 and EHS pushed its lead to 34-31, but Garrett Smith, who Clark called Johnston City's X-facor drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 34-all late in the third.
The Indians closed out the third with a 40-36 lead and eventually built a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter before winning by five.
"Number 33 (Smith) lit us up," Clark said. "We had a pretty good game plan going in. It worked early, but Smith really had a nice ballgame."
Smith led the Indians with 18 points, while Davison tacked on 15 and Hunter Zeigler finished with 14.
Deaton led all scorers with 20 points as he capped off his Eagle career. Nathan Burnett dumped in 16 points and Richard Graceffa had 13 points.
As the season comes to a close for Eldorado and its first-year coach in Clark, he saw the improvements he needed to see to know the program is heading in the right direction.
"I don't think there is any question we got better as the year went on. We got beat by these guys by 30 in December and played them tight tonight."
Michael Dann can be reached at mdann@dailyregister.com. Follow him on twitter: @spydieshooter.
Eldorado 17 08 11 22 - 58
Johnston City 10 12 18 23 - 63
Eldorado (9-18): Burnett 5-6 5-11 16, Ninness 0-0 0-0 0, Lawrence 1-7 0-0 3, A. Partridge 0-1 0-0 0, Boulds 0-0 0-0 0, E. Partridge 3-10 0-0 6, Graceffa 6-12 1-1 13, Deaton 8-15 4-6 20. Totals: 23-52 10-16 58.
Johnston City (17-11): Smith 5-10 6-8 18, Davison 7-13 0-1 15, Burns 2-3 1-2 5, Blankenship 1-1 0-0 3, Zeigler 4-8 5-7 14, Myers 0-0 0-0 0, Jeffords 0-0 0-0 0, Tanner 2-7 3-5 8, Friess 0-0 0-0 0, McCormick 0-4 0-0 0, Payne 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-46 15-23 63.
3-pointers: Eldorado 2-14 (Burnett 1-1, Lawrence 1-5, Partridge 0-1, Graceffa 0-4, Deaton 0-3), Johnston City 6-13 (Smith 2-2, Davison 1-3, Blankeship 1-1, Zeigler 1-1, Tanner 1-3, McCormick 0-3). Turnovers: Eldorado 16, Johston City 13. Rebounds: Eldorado 31, Johnston City 26. Fouls: Eldorado 18, Johnston City 15.