Prep Hoops: Getting Physical
Harrisburg and West Frankfort kicked off Southern Illinois River-to-River play Friday night with what could be a precursor for the rest of the season - at least for the Bulldogs.
Things are going to get physical this year.
Harrisburg was out rebounded 30-15 and the two teams combined for almost 40 fouls as Harrisburg put up a 57-50 win at Davenport Gymnasium.
Harrisburg (5-2, 1-0 SIRR) put three players in double figures as Isaiah Saulsberry led the Bulldogs with 19 points and Patrick Bittle fouled out with 17 points on 4-of-11 shooting and 2-of-6 from 3-point range, both of which came at the end of the first and second quarters. Noah Ferrell came off the bench for 10 points.
Keegan Easley had a game-high 22 points for West Frankfort (0-4, 0-1), 11 of which came in the fourth quarter, while Austin Glodich had 10 points for the Redbirds.
Harrisburg led wire-to-wire and held off several runs by the Redbirds after shooting 18-of-42 from the field and 4-of-10 from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs went 18-for-32 at the free throw line.
Despite out rebounding Harrisburg, West Frankfort also turned the ball over more, committing 14 miscues to the Bulldogs' six.
Defensive pressure and an execution of the game plan is where Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters felt is where the game was really won.
"That was a very physical game and I think we learned a lot of things," he said. "I was very happy with the way we progressed with our defense as far as the thought process and the help position and knowing what we needed to do. I thought we followed our game plan very well and just really understood what we needed to do and went out and performed. Offensively, we missed some shots and that just happens, but I thought our pressure created some problems for West Frankfort, which we hoped it would."
On the notion of being out rebounded, Smithpeters knows it will be a theme throughout the season, but also something that his team will have to take ownership of.
"Rebounding will always be a concern because we're not very big," Smithpeters said. "This was a physical game and we did get outmanned a little bit and that's our job to step up to that. It's one of the things we talked about in the last two or three time outs, you have to physically get the job done and there were several opportunities we were in the right position, but didn't man up and finish the play. We're going to be smaller than just about every team we play and that's going to be a factor we are going to have to adjust to."
Blake Drue added eight points for Harrisburg, while Jordan Gould got two points.
Chase McLaren had five points to go along with a game-high 16 rebounds, while Andrew Sturgill finished with five points as well for West Frankfort.
Brett Reiger, Lucas Wolfe, Noah Allen and Keagan Thrash all had two points.
Harrisburg returns to action Friday when they travel to Massac County and close out the week with a road game Saturday at Du Quoin High School.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.