Prep Hoops: End of the Run
By MICHAEL DANN
mdann@dailyregister.com
CARMI - In 2009, Jersey Shore was a big hit; Kanye West ambushes Taylor Swift at the MTV Awards and Michael Jackson passed away.
It was also the last time Harrisburg failed to win a regional title.
Fast forwarded some six years later and history has a way of repeating itself, kind of.
Thanks in large part to a big third quarter rally, Fairfield knocked off Harrisburg 68-61 to dethrone the Bulldogs at the Carmi-White County Class 2A Regional Friday night.
Harrisburg (18-11) had won five straight regionals and six in the past seven seasons heading into Friday night's title tilt at a packed McDougal-Evers Gymnasium.
And to boot, the Bulldogs had three straight win overs Fairfield this season.
Mules head coach Scott McElravy knew coming in it was going to take a big-time effort to beat the Bulldogs, so he went to his big man.
Nathaniel Lackey, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the third quarter and finished with a game-high 38 points to help Fairfield (20-7) to its first tile since 2007, which was McElravy's second year on the job.
"We knew we had to get it to Lackey," McElravy said. "We were trying to get some switches to where Bahari (Amaya) had to guard him too, but we just kept running the same play over and over and over again. (Sky) Kollak didn't have many points tonight, but he had a lot of assists going to Lackey."
Harrisburg built a 9-8 first quarter lead and led 23-22 at halftime thanks to a Patrick Bittle triple right before the buzzer.
In the first half there were five ties and eight lead changes.
That pace kept up to start the third as the two teams combined for four lead changes to start the quarter, but down 27-26 with 5:24 to play, Lackey would go on to score 13 points and give Fairfield a 29-27 advantage with 2:00 to play.
The Mules never looked back, closing out the third quarter up 39-29.
Fairfield led by as many as 18 in the game before Harrisburg tried to rally late with Amaya scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter as the senior closed out his career at Harrisburg with 33 points to lead the way for the Bulldogs.
"It was just one of those nights where things didn't go our way," Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters said. "We battled and we're okay at halftime, but we had too many turnovers in the first half and some shots that we rushed a little bit and that's something that we tried to correct.
"In the second half, Fairfield just went to Lackey so hard, that he is a guy that we didn't have an answer for. We had Carson (Batts) battling in there and Jordan (Bartok) battling in there and we tried to give all the help we could give. He is a ton and his points tonight showed that."
Aside from Lackey's herculean effort in third, Fairfield outscored Harrisburg 17-6 and held the Bulldogs to 2-of-9 shooting from the field, including an 0-for-6 mark from long range.
"We took good shots in the second half and we worked hard to get those shots," Smithpeters said. "It's one of those things you don't have any control over, but it wasn't mistakes on our part. It's something I wanted to praise the team about. They came over here and played hard and hard all the way through."
Harrisburg finished the night 11-of-24 from the field and went 9-for-26 from 3-point range, while knocking down 12-of-12 free throws. The Bulldogs out-rebounded Fairfield 24-21, but made 15 turnovers to the Mules' 13.
Fairfield went 24-for-34 from the field, while Lackey finished 17-for-22 on the night. The Mules were 0-of-6 from long range and hit 20-of-25 foul shots in the win.
"We have a lot of respect for Harrisburg and what they do," McElravy said. "I love Bahari Amaya as a player and a person, but I'm just really happy for our players and our community."
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
CARMI-WHITE COUNTY CLASS 2A REGIONAL
Fairfield 68
Harrisburg 61
2pt 3pt
Fairfield (21-7) FG FG FT R A S PF TP
Troyer, g 2-2 0-1 0-2 3 2 1 4 4
Gifford, g 3-5 0-2 10-12 1 4 0 3 16
Land, f 2-3 0-0 4-4 7 1 1 2 8
Kollak,f 0-1 0-1 0-0 3 7 0 3 0
Lackey, c 17-22 0-0 4-5 6 1 2 2 38
Snyder 0-0 0-2 2-2 1 1 0 0 2
McGill 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0
Total: 24-34 0-6 20-25 21 17 4 14 68
2pt 3pt
Harrisburg (18-11) FG FG FT R A S PF TP
Drew, g 1-2 0-0 0-0 5 1 2 4 2
Houston, g 1-4 0-3 0-0 4 2 2 5 2
Bartok, g 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 1 0
Batts, f 1-1 0-4 0-0 1 1 0 3 2
Amaya, f 7-13 3-6 10-10 7 2 0 4 33
Saulsberry 0-1 3-5 2-2 4 2 1 3 11
Gould 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Bittle 1-1 3-7 0-0 1 2 1 4 11
Total: 11-24 9-26 12-12 24 10 7 24 61
Turnovers: Ffld 13; Hbg 15
Technical Fouls: None
Score by Quarters:
Ffld 08-14-17-29-68
Hbg 09-14-06-32-71