Lady Dogs downed in Murphysboro

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Thursday's 44-23 loss at Murphysboro could very well be represented as two different games as far as the Harrisburg High School girls basketball team is concerned.

The first half could represent Game 1 as the Lady Bulldogs jumped out to an early 5-2 lead thanks to an early bucket down low by Megan Sullivan followed by a 3-point field goal by Molly Berry.

And while the Lady Red Devils stormed back to take a 9-8 lead after the first period, it was not as if they did so in dominating fashion. Harrisburg played tough with Murphysboro, which was celebrating its Senior Night on Thursday, as the Lady Dogs fought off several hard charges by the hosts and went into the locker room facing only a three point deficit.

And that is where the scene ended for act one. As for act two, it was as if a whole other basketball game broke out.

Murphysboro outscored Harrisburg 26-5 in the second half en route to a 21-point victory. Halylie Hines scored 11 points to lead the way for the Red Devils, while senior Nykeshia Dowell added 10.

Senior Kelsey Piche and junior Hillary Shires each scored six points as no Lady Bulldog scored in double figures.

Harrisburg struggled mightily on the offensive end as it made only eight field goals and shot 20 percent from the floor and committed more turnovers (24) than it scored points (23).

The Lady Bulldogs hope to turn it around as the team plays Hamilton County on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the opening game of the regional hosted by Harrisburg.

Box Score

HBG 8 7 2 6-44

MUR 9 9 16 10-23

Harrisburg Scoring: Picche 2 2-2 6, Berry 1 1-2 4, Sullivan 2 1-1 5, Shires 3 0-0 6, Aut. Twardowski 1 0-0 2. Totals 8 4-5 23.