Prep Hoops: Red Devils hold off Harrisburg
Suffice to say, Murphysboro spread the love Friday night.
Senior guard Devante Jones got the Red Devils going in the first half, scoring 15 points to give Murphysboro a two-point, 30-28 halftime lead over Harrisburg.
Sophomore guard Braden Miller took center stage in the second half, scoring 12 points, keeping the Bulldogs at bay, giving Murphysboro a 68-57 River-to-River Ohio Division win over a conference rival and helped head coach Daryl Murphy to career win No. 400.
Murphy, who is already the winningest coach in MHS history, took over the Red Devil program back in 1997. Following the win Friday, he said it hasn't really hit him yet, but takes solace in the notion he got it over a quality program like Harrisburg.
"It's a great thing. Right now I haven't had much time to reflect on it. The bus leaves at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and we're just going to try and go get win No. 401. Maybe Saturday night or Sunday I can think back, but it's taken a lot of great guys by my side and a lot of great players to get here. It's been a good run over these last 20 years.
"I have all the respect for Randy Smithpeters and Harrisburg. Randy has been at this a lot longer than I have and I have a lot of respect for him. Just winning the conference game tonight was big for us to stay in the hunt. We just been playing tough games it seems every night and this was no different. It's a war for us every night."
The game itself was a battle as Murphysboro and Harrisburg exchanged blows that consisted of four ties and 15 lead changes.
Murphysboro's biggest lead early on was an eight-point, 15-7 first quarter lead, thanks in large part to six turnovers by Harrisburg.
The Bulldogs flipped the script in the second half, mounting a comeback on five miscues by Murphysboro and got to within two, 30-28 at halftime after outscoring the Red Devils 17-13.
Bahari Amaya, who finished with a team-high 20 points for Harrisburg (10-5, 1-3), tied the game at 30-all to start the third quarter and the Bulldogs took their first lead of the game since the first quarter (3-0) when Anfernee Houston's bucket gave the Bulldogs a 33-32 advantage with 5:59 to play.
The lead was short lived however as Murphysboro went to work, getting back-to-back buckets by Anthony Henry and Jones.
Midway through the third, Amaya nailed a jumper to give Harrisburg a 42-40 lead, but Miler started a run of nine straight points to close out the third quarter where Murphysboro had a 50-45 lead going into the games final eight minutes.
Amaya tied the game once more at 50-all in the fourth, but the Bulldogs would go cold from the field, hitting just 3-of-6 shots and finishing with seven turnovers.
"We got off to a bad start and were kind of able to pull back into it," Harrisburg head coach Randy Smithpeters said." The only thing I addressed with the kids was our lack of screening out and giving up offensive rebounds. We got killed on the boards tonight by a team that is athletic, but not big. I think that's our fault. Hopefully we'll learn from that. Give us the points back that they got off offensive rebounds and we win. There are some places we have to do some things better, but that's just where we are."
Murpysboro (9-4, 3-1) put three players in double figures as Jones led the charge with 17 points. Miller finished with 16 and Henry tacked on 11.
The Red Devils finished going 23-for-39 from the field , while knocking down 5-of-13 3-pointers. At the charity stripe, Murphysboro hit on 17-of-33 foul shots.
Harrisburg got 14 points from Houston and seven points from Patrick Bittle while Blake Drue finished with five and Jordan Bartok banked in four with another three from both Carson Batts and Corbin Crim-Harbinson.
The Bulldogs shot 17-of-38 from the field and went 6-of-16 from downtown, while knocking down 16-of-21 free throws.
Harrisburg outrebounded Muphysboro 18 to 17 but committed 20 turnovers to Murphysboro's 12.
"It takes everything we have," Murphy said. "We give up size. We give up speed. You name it, we give it up going into games and right now we're 9-4 and we'll take it. We have a lot of kids that play hard and do what they are told."
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Murphysboro 68
Harrisburg 57
Harrisburg (10-5, 1-3)
Name FG 3-pt FT Reb PF TP
Drue 2-4 0-0 1-2 4 5 5
Houston 5-11 1-4 3-3 3 5 14
Batts 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 3 3
Crim-Harbinson 0-2 0-0 3-4 5 3 3
Amaya 6-11 2-5 6-8 2 4 20
Bartok 1-2 0-0 2-4 2 0 4
Bittle 2-3 2-3 1-2 0 1 7
Saulsberry 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 1 0
Smith 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Gould 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 17-38 6-16 16-21 18 23 57
Murphysboro
Name FG 3-pt FT Reb PF TP
Murphy 3-5 1-1 1-2 3 3 8
Jones 6-10 2-6 3-8 4 4 17
Henry 5-6 0-0 1-2 2 0 11
Miller 4-7 1-2 7-10 1 2 16
LaBranche 3-4 0-0 1-3 2 2 7
Marston 1-2 1-2 2-2 2 5 5
McCall 0-3 0-2 2-2 2 1 2
Baird 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2
Totals 23-39 5-13 17-33 17 18 68
Score By Quarters
Harrisburg 11 17 17 11 - 57
Murphysboro 17 13 20 18 - 68