Prep Hoops: Ruff Weekend

The last two teams to represent southern Illinois at the IHSA Class 2A State Tournament met Saturday and one looks to be headed back to Peoria.

The No. 2 state ranked Hornets survived a 19-0 run by Harrisburg in the second quarter and staved off the Bulldogs to win 67-52 Saturday at the Rich Herrin Classic at Benton High School.

It was a concentrated scoring effort from the Bulldogs, who got a bulk of their scoring from three players.

Bahari Amaya and Isiah Saulsberry had a co-team-high 15 points for the Bulldogs, while Ben Fowler came off the bench for 11 points.

Nashville's size, strength and experience were too much for a young Harrisburg club, who more times than not, played with four freshmen on the floor.

It wasn't enough to deter Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters from handing out much needed praise.

"We're young and at times, we did look like freshmen out there in a physical game, but I thought we did okay," Smithpeters said. "I'm very happy with the effort. Coming off a tough night Friday at Massac and I really wanted to see what our mentality would be (today). We played hard and I think we approached the game plan with a lot of confidence. We did some different things for us, which is hard to do on 24 hours notice. Our offense was much different. Our defense was much different and we had three things on the board, although we kept it very simple, those three things were very important."

Of those three things: communication, hustle and rebounding were Smithpeters' biggest bones of contention.

Nashville jumped out to an 18-8 first quarter lead and after the Hornets started the second quarter up 20-8, the Bulldogs went to work.

Harrisburg went on a 19-0 run, thanks in large part to sharp shooting efforts from the outside from Saulsberry, Amaya and Fowler to take a 27-20 lead with 2:56 to play in the first half after Amaya hit Harrisburg's fifth 3-pointer of the quarter.

Harrisburg closed out the first half with a 30-26 lead and shot 11-for-25 from the field and 8-for-16 from beyond the arc.

Also helping out Harrisburg's cause was forcing Nashville into six second quarter miscues and 11 in the first half. The Bulldogs had 10, all coming in the first quarter.

Nashville turned the tables on Harrisburg in the second half, holding the Bulldogs to 2-of-10 shooting from the field and an 0-for-7 clip from long range as they took a 44-35 lead into the game's final eight minutes.

"We had to rely on three-point shots because of the size of Nashville," Smithpeters said. "We knew we couldn't attack inside very well. When the shots were falling, we were okay. I thought we defended for all 32 minutes as well as we could. Their size creates a lot of problems, where they can get out of situations just because of their size. We tried to pressure the outside and that's the part they didn't understand at first."

Massac County 72, Harrisburg 58

Amaya scored 22 points, but it wasn't enough as Harrisburg lost in Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Ohio Division action Friday on the road.

Massac County jumped out to a 15-13 lead and went on to outscore Harrisburg 16-6 in the second quarter to take a 31-19 halftime lead.

The Patriots kept the pressure on in the third quarter, outscoring Harrisburg 16-8 as they led 47-27 heading into the game's final eight minutes.

Saulsberry tacked on 10 for Harrisburg in the loss, while Anfernee Houston added eight points. Jordan Bartok chipped in with seven points, while Carson Batts finished with five. Blake Drue, Hunter Smith and Jordan Gould all had two points.

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.

Nashville 67

Harrisburg 52

Harrisburg (17-8)

Name FG 3-pt FT Reb PF TP

Drue 1-2 0-1 1-1 7 1 3

Houston 1-2 1-2 2-3 2 3 5

Batts 1-4 0-2 0-1 1 5 2

Bartok 0-2 0-0 1-3 5 2 1

Amaya 6-18 3-12 0-0 3 3 15

Saulsberry 5-10 4-8 1-2 2 2 15

Fowler 4-8 3-6 0-0 3 2 11

Totals 18-46 11-31 5-10 23 18 52

Nashville (24-2)

Name FG 3-pt FT Reb PF TP

Heggemeier 1-3 0-0 5-6 2 1 7

Thornson 3-5 0-0 3-4 2 3 9

Mueller 5-6 0-0 1-2 3 1 7

Newman 7-7 0-0 4-7 1 1 18

Cooper 8-10 0-0 3-3 8 3 19

Bultman 1-1 0-0 2-2 2 1 4

Pedtke 1-1 1-1 0-0 1 1 3

Totals 24-33 1-1 18-23 19 11 67

Score By Quarters

Nashville 18 26 18 23 - 67

Harrisburg 08 22 05 17 - 52

Harrisburg 13 06 08 31- 58

Massac Co. 15 16 16 25- 72

Harrisburg (58): Drue 1 0-0 2, Amaya 9 3-7 22, Houston 2 4-4 8, Bartok 1 5-8 7, Batts 2 1-2 5, Smith 0 2-2 2, Saulsberry 3 4-6 10, Gould 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 19-29 58.

Massac County (72): Roundtree 11 3-4 26, Stoner 0 1-2 1, Weber 3 0-0 7, Travis 1 1-4 3, Benard 3 4-5 10, Farmer 5 2-2 12, Marlatt 3 6-8 13. Totals 26 17-25 72.

3-pointers: HBG 1 (Amaya); MC 3 (Roundtree, Weber, Marlatt). Team Fouls: HBG 24; MC 24. Fouled Out: Drue, Amaya, Houston; Weber. Records: Harrisburg is 17-7 (3-4 SIRR Ohio); Massac County is 11-10 (2-4 SIRR Ohio).