Prep Hoops: Ruff & Tuff
The ink had dried, but it hadn't smudged much, which in a way was all too appropriate for Harrisburg at Massac County Friday night.
Written on the Bulldogs' dry erase board in the locker room was the word "tough."
Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters probably didn't know when he wrote that in the pregame, how critical it was going to be at game's end.
Harrisburg lost its leading scorer Isaiah Saulsberry in the opening possession of the game and endured a 40 minute battle with the Patriots, coming out on the good side of a 67-62 victory at Massac County High School.
The Patriots, earlier in the week, took home the top seed at the upcoming Eldorado Holiday Tournament, where Harrisburg is the No. 3 seed.
Saulsberry, who came into the contest averaging 20 points per game, left with a head injury and that was just the beginning of what would be a long night for Harrisburg, who played much of the first half in foul trouble and had to hold off a rallying Massac County group that got as close as three-points of tying the game in the fourth quarter.
"It's a tough night when you lose Isaiah the first possession of the game and people had to really pick up the slack," Smithpeters said. "Our bench had to step in and help us, what bench there is and the other thing that I thought was unusual about this game was the foul situation. We came in here at halftime and had three guys with three fouls and everybody else with two, so that was a real tough situation.
"We could have probably made some mistakes the first three or four minutes of the third quarter and basically handed the game over because of foul trouble, but we didn't. We competed and made good decisions on foul situations and when to just step back and give them some stuff. That allowed us to play the final 16 minutes and we made good decisions down the stretch, not that it was easy and not that we didn't make some mistakes, but that's going to happen when you have a game like this."
Leading 50-41 after three quarters, Harrisburg held off a fourth quarter rally by Massac County, where Noah Farmer completed a three-point play to make it 54-51 Harrisburg with 3:44 to play.
It was a cat and mouse game with the Bulldogs playing with a lead and forcing Massac County to foul as Harrisburg finished 11-for-15 from the free throw line in the final eight minutes of the game.
Patrick Bittle led all scorers with 26 points, while Hunter Smith came off the bench for another 22 points for the Bulldogs. Jordan Gould also finished in double figures with 11 points, while Blake Drue finished with five, Jordan Bartok banked in two points and Noah Ferrell had a free throw.
Playing without Saulsberry was something that Smithpeters said he wasn't uncomfortable with and praised his players for stepping up when they knew they had to.
"It never entered my mind that we didn't have Isaiah," Smithpeters said. "You're dealing with what's on the floor and that's what you have to make your decisions on. I think from the mentality of the other players, they understand what we lost with the ball handling and scoring, and I think they adjusted to it and stepped up. Guys that don't handle the ball much, handled the ball more and guys that don't score a lot, had to score more. I just thought we made good decisions and understood what our position was. We handled the adversity, but one of our goals was to come down and keep your head screwed on right and we did that."
Coaches give players credit for a win and coaches take credit for losses, but Smithpeters doesn't claim any in Friday night's win over Massac County.
"This kind of builds off the West Frankfort game, where we came in with a game plan on how we needed to defend and what we thought we had to do offensively and we really followed that.
The thing about (Friday night) was we knew it would be a very physical game, a very tough game mentally and that this is a tough place to play. We fought through all those things and I thought we were prepared. I think we matched their physicality, which is something you have to do and play thought a tough atmosphere.
"We knew we had to be tough and I felt we were terribly tough (Friday night). I thought we were tough mentally and physically and I think that's a big key for this group and we've been tougher than most teams we have played."
Harrisburg 63, Du Quoin 59
Hunter Smith led three Bulldogs in double figures as Harrisburg won its second straight road game, knocking off Du Quoin 63-59 at Anders Gymnasium Saturday night.
Noah Ferrell finished with 15 points, while Blake Drue tacked on 13 in the win for the Bulldogs, who improve to 7-2 overall and ride a four-game win streak into the EHT, which starts Saturday at Duff-Kingston Gymnasium.
Harrisburg shot 22-of-43 from the field and were 4-of-9 from 3-point range as Smith knocked down two. Bittle and Ferrell had the other two.
Harrisburg returns to action Saturday in the 51st playing of the EHT when they play host to Carrier Mills at 7 p.m.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Harrisburg 21 15 16 17 - 67
Massac County 10 14 17 21 - 62
Massac County: Duckworth 0-0 1-3 1, Weber 10-12 2-4 24, Roundtree 3-5 1-3 7, Austin 0-2 2-2 2, Lawson 1-1 0-0 2, Farmer 3-4 2-4 9, Burgess 1-1 0-0 2, Thompson 4-4 0-1 8. Team: 3-19 0-0. Totals: 25-48 8-17 62.
Harrisburg: Bittle 6-9 11-12 Drue 2-5 1-3 5, Gould 5-6 1-2 11, Smith 6-7, 7-11 22, Bartok 0-1 2-6 2, Ferrell 0-0 1-2 1. Team 0-4 0-0 0. Totals: 19-32 23-38 67.
3-point FG: MCHS 4-8 (Weber 2-2, Lawson 1-1, Farmer 1-1, Roundtree 0-1, Austin 0-1, Team 0-2), HBG 6-9 (Smith 3-4, Bittle 3-5). Rebounds: MCHS 17, HBG 17. Fouls MCHS 31, HBG 22.