Prep Hoops: Enough In The End
Harrisburg rang in "March Madness" a day early.
The apropo name for the IHSA post season lived up to its billing as the Bulldogs held off a furious fight by Benton to win the Class 2A Harrisburg Regional 60-55 at Davenport Gymnasium Friday night.
The regional title is the fifth straight for Harrisburg and was the fourth straight for Bulldog senior Eli Taborn-Scott who led all scorers with 19 points, including a team-high six rebounds.
Taborn-Scott, who was the first player to win four straight Eldorado Holiday Tournament titles earlier this season, complimented his teammates on what was described as a "total team effort."
"It feels great, but it took a lot of hard work to get here," Taborn-Scott said. "I'm proud of everybody, all my teammates, we had a lot of younger guys step up tonight. That's been us tonight, we've been up and down, but we seem to have a knack for coming out and winning the big games."
Harrisburg (18-10) has now won five straight games heading into next week's DuQuoin Sectional. It's the sixth regional title in the last seve years and 21st in school history for the Bulldogs.
Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters now has 12 regional championships under his belt.
The Bulldogs saw a 16-point 43-27 lead in the third quarter evaporate before their eyes as Benton got as close as a point with 1:29 to play in the fourth as Derek Oxford, the hero Wednesday night against West Frankfort, assumed the role again.
For Harrisburg, a strong push at the free throw line, where Bahari Amaya knocked down four straight helped the Bulldogs escape with the victory.
After Amaya knocked down two, to make it a 58-55 contest, Benton got a look at two good 3-point tries that rattled out of the rim.
"Give a lot of credit to the Rangers," Smithpeters said. "They had that push in the second half, hit shots and we've worked on defending the 3-point shot, which is their strength and still yet, they come out and hit the ones they got.
"I'm still happy with our group, happy to win and I thought we got contributions from everybody. You can look at the points, look at the rebounds, look at the free throws, but I thought all of our guys contributed. You have to have that if you want to win big games."
It was a balance scoring night for Harrisburg as Anfernee Houston chipped in with 16 points and Amaya finished with 12.
Corbin Crim scored six points and Carson Batts finished with four, while Jarren Goldman had two points and Jake Simerly had a free throw.
Benton was led by 15 points from Oxford, while Nathanael Ritchason tacked on 13 points and Kruz Hayes added 11 points.
It was one bad quarter that loomed large for the Rangers, after playing Harrisburg to a first quarter 17-all tie, Benton was held to 3-of-7 shooting in the second quarter where they were outscored 19-8 by Harrisburg and limped into the locker room down 36-25.
Harrisburg finished 21-for-45 from the floor and shot 5-of-12 from behind the arc, while finishing 12-of-22 from the free throw line, but an all important 7-of-11 in the final eight minutes.
Benton went 19-for-39 shooting, while finishing 5-of-16 from 3-point range and went 12-of-14 at the free throw line.
"The foul line is a place you can't put Benton," Smithpeters said. "We put them there too much and I know they were tremendous from there tonight. That's a place where we didn't want to put them, but that's also very difficult not to do.
"For us, we had the right guys shooting down the stretch at the free throw line and Bahari, cool as a cucumber, stepped in and hit some big free throws."
Harrisburg will now play Wednesday night in the Du Quoin 2A Sectional semifinals against Nashville.
Sectional Semifinal Preview
Wednesday night's semifinal showdown will be a rematch of last year's Sectional Championship at Max Morris Gymnasium in West Frankfort.
The Bulldogs knocked off Nashville 52-26 and enter Wednesday night averaging 65.7 points per game, while giving up 58.8
The Hornets (23-7) averaging 53.2 points per game and 43.7 on defense.
Harrisburg (18-10) has won a season-high five straight games and are a season-high eight games over .500.
Michael Dann can be reached at mdann@dailyregister.com Follow him on twitter: @spydieshooter
Benton 17 08 10 20 - 55
Harrisburg 17 19 11 13 - 60
Benton: C. Owens 0-0 0-0 0, Oxford 4-10 5-6 15, Hayes 5-8 0-0 11, Higgins 3-8 1-1 9, Ritchason 6-8 1-1 13, Head 0-0 0-0 0, T. Owens 0-0 0-0 0, Willis 1-4 5-6 7. Totals: 19-39 12-14 55.
Harrisburg: Houston 6-14 1-3 16, Goldman 0-2 1-3 1, Simerly 0-3 2-2 2, Amaya 3-5 4-4 12, Scott 7-11 5-10 19, Crim 3-5 0-1 6, Batts 2-6 0-0 4. Totals: 21-45 12-22 60.
3-point FG: Benton 5-16 (Oxford 2-6, Hayes 1-3, Higgins 2-5, Wills 0-2), Harrisburg 5-12 (Houston 3-5, Amaya 2-2, Crim 0-1, Batts 0-4). Turnovers: Benton 20, Harrisburg 10. Rebounds: Benton 18 (Hayes 6), Harrisburg 20 (Taborn-Scott 6). Fouls: Benton 18, Harrisburg 18.
DU QUOIN SECTIONAL
Tuesday, March 4
GAME 1 - Mt. Carmel vs. Carterville 7 p.m.
Wednesday, March 5
GAME 2 - Nashville vs. Harrisburg, 7 p.m.
Friday, March 7
GAME 3 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 7 p.m.