02-03-13
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON – Last season the Harrisburg Bulldogs entered several shootouts as they were trying to get better each game.

They were building toward a run at a state championship.

The trend last season was Harrisburg would fall behind early and would see its rally fall short.

But even in defeat, Coach Smithpeters' team got better each contest.

The trend has been reversed this season as Harrisburg, in these crucial games, are the ones beginning well.

The toughness of their competition is paying off as they are the marked team wearing the bulls-eye.

In other words, this season “The Hunter has become the Hunted.”

On Saturday afternoon at Rich Herrin Gym, the Bulldogs got out to an early lead and held off upset-minded Casey-Westfield to win its 23rd game of the season, 68-50.

With the top spot in the ABV preseason and current rankings along with the state-wide poll, Harrisburg will get the A-game from each team that they play.

The game against Casey-Westfield was no different.

Jumping out to a quick lead by forcing the Warriors into an uncharacteristic 1-of-14 shooting in the first quarter along with seven turnovers, Harrisburg is now 23-1 with the victory.

“We always like to get off to a good start and I thought we did. We have had a lot of sickness (flu bug) on the team and we wore down quickly after the good start,” said Coach Smithpeters. “We did the same thing last night (Massac County win). They (Casey-Westfield) are a very good team. I was impressed on how they went to the boards, their strength and they made us work to get good shots. It pointed out something that we need to work on (rebounding) because they were so physical.”

However the Warriors didn't back down and rallied a couple of times in the second half only to see their record slip to 16-6 on the season.

The normal culprits in the scorebook for the Bulldogs were there in this contest.

Tyler Smithpeters led the way with 20-points while backcourt teammate Capel Henshaw finished with 18.

Eli Taborn-Scott ended up with 12-points for Harrisburg.

Coach Randy Smithpeters' Bulldogs won despite their own shortcomings, as they committed 19-turnovers themselves and allowed Casey-Westfield 15-offensive rebounds.

But the reasoning behind all of those offensive second chance opportunities for the Warriors were attributed to Coach Steve Hawkins' club hitting just 16-of-57 shots from the floor.

In a foul plagued game in which a total of 55-free throws were attempted, the Bulldogs survived by doing just enough in the second half to secure the win.

Six-foot-three junior guard Brandon Wolfe led Casey-Westfield with 20-points while teammates Zach Murphy and Trivette Scales added 10-points each.

Winners of the Little Illini Conference tournament championship a week ago, the Warriors looked to be a good opponent for top-ranked Harrisburg going into Saturday's matchup.

And for 16 of the minutes they were.

However the first 16-minutes belonged to the Bulldogs as they took it right to the Warriors in the opening half.

In a game in which they never trailed, Harrisburg's first run of the game (10-0) to close the quarter gave them a 15-4 lead.

Smithpeters scored eight points in the first period and six of those came in the sprint.

His driving lay in on a fast break on a nice pass from Henshaw completed one of six transition scores in the first quarter for the visitors on the scoreboard.

He returned the favor on the next C-W possession as another turnover resulted in a pass from Smithpeters to Henshaw for a lay in and a Warriors' timeout down 11-4.

Taborn-Scott, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, then scored in the lane and the quarter closed with another Smithpeters basket as the Bulldogs led by 11 at the first horn.

Harrisburg appeared headed for an easy win with a big second quarter.

The Bulldogs hit just two 3-pointers in the contest and both came in the second period.

Henshaw hit one from downtown from the right wing off of a pass by reserve Snjolfur “Snowy” Bjornsson for a 22-12 lead.

Another reserve, Bahari Amaya, came in and produced a 3-pointer.

His made trey extended the lead to 28-15 with 2:10 to go.

Harrisburg finished the second quarter the same as they did the first by making another run.

Ryne Roper, another of the senior standouts for the Bulldogs, scored four of his seven points in the scoring spree while closing the half with a pair of shots.

His lay in finished the scoring with :06 left to send the clubs to intermission at 36-19 Harrisburg.

“We couldn't get anything to fall in the first five minutes. I thought we had some good looks at the basket but they just weren't going in,” said Coach Hawkins. “We have to shoot the ball better. We got on them at halftime and I thought that they responded well. I really think we won the second half. But we have to shoot better from long range and the free throw line if you are going to beat the number one team in the state.”

The Bulldogs could have put Casey-Westfield away in the early going of the third quarter but the resilient Warriors mounted a pair of second half rallies.

Back-to-back scores to open the third quarter by Harrisburg's Dakota Upchurch and Roper gave the Bulldogs their largest lead at 40-19.

Nevertheless, C-W final found their niche on the offensive end in the second half.

Wolfe triggered a rally in the third quarter by making a pair of long range bombs.

His second shot from the right wing on an out-of-bounds play cut the lead to just 41-32.

This capped an 11-0 run that was fueled by three consecutive Harrisburg turnovers.

This rally would have turned out to be golden had the Warriors been able to capitalize from the foul line.

During the third quarter alone, Casey-Westfield was just 4-of-11 from the stripe and finished just 16-of-26 overall.

Harrisburg committed seven of its 19-turnovers in the third quarter but still managed a 49-35 lead heading into the final quarter.

“When you have five athletes that they can put on the floor that can all handle the ball and score, they can take an eight point lead to 16 really quick,” added Coach Hawkins. “I like the effort we had, we just needed it in the first half.”

Coach Hawkins' team made one final run at Harrisburg in the last stanza, cutting the lead to just eight points once more.

Wolfe scored eight straight points himself and when senior forward Matt McCown converted a fast break chance, the Warriors were down just 43-35 with 5:28 remaining.

Harrisburg put the game away with seven straight points, hitting 5-of-6 free throws and adding another basket by Upchurch for a 60-45 lead.

Six more points from the foul line and a steal and fast break lay in by Taborn-Scott closed out the win for Harrisburg.

“We came here to play and get better and we are going to get on the bus a better team because they (Casey-Westfield) pointed out some things that we need to work on and get better at,” added Coach Smithpeters. “It (letting up) has been our problem all year. We get big leads in games and we kind of turn it off.”

The Bulldogs hit 23-of-50 field goal attempts overall and were 2-of-7 from behind the arc.

Harrisburg held a slight 37-34 rebounding edge.

“We have been fortunate this year (getting early leads) and if you look at the first few minutes of the game our defense set the tone. You look up at the scoreboard and they only have four points. Our offense tends to take care of itself,” added Coach Smithpeters. “We didn't score 75 or 80 points today but we defended well enough to win.”

C-W can point to the foul shooting and a woeful 2-of-19 performance from 3-point land as its main issue that it couldn't overcome.

“I don't think this was an 18-point game, we just laid such an egg in the first quarter that we couldn't dig our way out of the hole,” said Coach Hawkins. “I think we are a pretty solid team but we have to play in the first half the way that we played in the second half all the time. We have to get our intensity fixed.”

Harrisburg (68) – Smithpeters 6 0 8-12 20, Younger 0 0 0-0 0, Henshaw 5 1 5-5 18, Roper 3 0 1-2 7, Amaya 0 1 2-2 5, Bjornson 0 0 1-2 1, Taborn-Scott 5 0 2-4 12, Upchurch 2 0 1-2 5.
2FG-21, 3FG-2, FT-20-29, PF-21.
Casey-Westfield (50) – Thompson 0 0 0-0 0, Lawrence 0 0 0-0 0, Huisinga 0 0 0-2 0, Scales 5 0 0-0 10, Wolfe 3 2 8-9 20, S. McCown 0 0 0-0 0, McNeil 0 0 0-0 0, Fisher 0 0 0-0 0, Bradenburg 1 0 0-0 2, M. McCown 3 0 2-4 8, Carver 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-14, 3FG-2, FT-16-26, PF-22.
Fouled Out – Smithpeters - Harrisburg; Murphy - Casey-Westfield.
Technical Fouls – None.

Anna-Jonesboro (57) – Parr 5 0 3-4 13, Fuller 7 0 0-2 14, Reed 0 0 1-2 1, Prater 1 0 1-2 3, James 0 1 0-0 3, Vaughn 2 1 2-2 9, McFarland 1 0 0-0 2, Kemp 6 0 0-0 12.
2FG-22, 3FG-2, FT-7-12, PF-12.
Hamilton County (42) – Billington 0 0 2-2 2, Lueke 6 1 4-6 19, Anselment 0 2 0-0 6, Gay 3 0 1-1 7, Kelly 0 0 0-0 0, Biggerstaff 1 0 0-0 2, Stevens 3 0 1-2 7, Robstock 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-13, 3FG-4, FT-8-11, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.

Coach Tyler Buss saw his club improve to 11-11 with the triumph with three other players (Levi Laws, Riley Rober and C.J. Diel) each scoring eight points.

Coach Wade Thomas saw his club drop to 12-12 with the loss, despite 21-points from Austin McPherson and 14-points from Hunter Zeigler.

Mount Carmel (66) – Laws 2 1 1-2 8, Vargo 0 0 0-0 0, Metcalf 6 5 4-6 31, Berry 0 0 0-0 0, Molstad 0 0 4-4 4, Allen 0 1 0-0 3, Thompson 2 0 0-0 4, Raber 1 2 0-1 8, Kline 0 0 0-0 0, Diel 3 0 2-3 8.
2FG-14, 3FG-9, FT-11-16, PF-15.
Johnston City (51) – Tanner 2 0 1-2 5, Zeigler 4 0 6-9 14, McCormick 0 2 1-2 7, McPherson 8 0 5-8 21, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Davison 2 0 0-0 4, Gregge 0 0 0-0 0, Cobb 0 0 0-0 0, Waters 0 0 0-0 0, Blankenship 0 0 0-0 0, Myers 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-16, 3FG-2, FT-13-21, PF-16.
Fouled Out – Raber - Mount Carmel; Davison - Johnston City.
Technical Fouls – None.

Webber Township (45) – Austin 1 0 0-0 2, O'Dell 1 0 2-2 4, Welch 1 0 0-0 2, Dye 0 0 2-2 2, Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Henderson 7 1 5-6 22, Hammer 0 0 0-0 0, Moser 0 0 0-0 0, Long 0 0 0-0 0, Gowler 0 0 0-0 0, Aydt 1 3 0-0 11, Karch 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-12, 3FG-4, FT-9-10, PF-17.
Carrier Mills (79) – Bailey 3 0 0 0-0 6, Mitchell 1 0 0-1 2, Figg 5 4 3-7 25, Kalodner 0 0 0-0 0, Whiting 1 0 0-0 2, Fann 0 0 0-0 0, Motsinger 1 0 0-0 2, Crowder 0 0 0-0 0, Binkley 0 0 0-0 0, Taborn 4 0 8-8 16, Betz 2 3 1-3 14, Parks 1 0 0-0 2, Gabbard 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-20, 3FG-9, FT-12-21, PF-13.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.