Girls Prep Hoops: Braves battle back to beat Harrisburg

The Harrisburg High School girls' basketball team saw a 10-point lead evaporate in a 44-39 loss to Union County, Ky., Saturday afternoon at Davenport Gymnasium.

The Bulldogs entered the fourth quarter tied with Union County at 29 and after a bucket by Alysia McGuire that put Harrisburg up 31-29, the Bulldogs endured a stretch were they would go scoreless for the next five minutes, not getting another bucket until a Matty Hawkins stick back with 2:33 to play, cut the deficit to three at 36-33.

Harrisburg (11-8) would get no closer than three points the rest of the game as Union County (8-8) sealed the deal by knocking down foul shots down the stretch.

Kelsey Hobbs led the Bulldogs with a team-high 20 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the floor and 6-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe.

Hawkins had six points for Harrisburg, while Alexa Burtis and Whitney Younger each finished with five points. McGuire had two points and Lotte Miller tossed in a free throw.

The Bulldogs went 13-for-44 from the field for 29 percent and finished 3-for-15 from beyond the arc for 20 percent. Harrisburg finished 10-of-12 at the foul stripe.

The game was the third this week in four days for Harrisburg and head coach Jake Stewart believes some of the wear and tear took its toll Saturday.

"The whole game besides the first quarter, I thought we played well offensivley," Stewart said. "But yeah, that fourth quarter stretch probably hurt us the most because that's when we need to score and the game got away from us a little bit.

"I thought we would be more tired in the second half after playing those other two games and we looked tired in the second half. Say what you want, but Union County made free throws. We put them at the line late and they made all the free throws they needed to make."

The Braves went to the line 27 times, knocking down 18 for 66 percent and won the turnover battle, forcing Harrisburg into 14 miscues, while coughing up the rock only twice themselves.