12-09-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG - On Saturday night at Davenport Gym, the host Harrisburg Bulldogs accomplished one of their nightly goals; keep the their opponent off of the boards.

It worked superbly, especially in the second half.

Needing to get some second chance baskets in the final quarter, Coach Mike Crews saw his Du Quoin Indians fail to come up with enough offensive rebounds to make any dent into the Harrisburg lead.

The Bulldogs connected on 4-of-6 free throws in the fourth quarter and received 13 points from Madison Medley and 10 from Garrick Piche to pick up a big non-conference 55-44 win.

Coach Randy Smithpeters saw his club improve to 3-1 on the season while Du Quoin dropped its second consecutive game after winning its first three.

Despite a game-high 17 points by Scottie Anders, Du Quoin never really threaten in the second half of this non-conference cross-over game between SIRR Mississippi and Ohio teams.

The key stat of the night was a 36-23 rebounding edge held by the triumphant Bulldogs.

“It is always part of our game plan to keep teams off the boards and we did a good job of it tonight,” said Coach Smithpeters. “We’ve done a good job of it all season long. We’ve emphasized defense this year and we are happy to have held a team like this (Du Quoin) to the point total that they got.”

When not shooting well and also failing to do much on the offensive glass, Du Quoin was in trouble from the second quarter on.

“Whether you’re athletic or not, you’ve still got to work to rebound and tonight we didn’t do a good job of that,” said Du Quoin mentor Mike Crews. “The kids spent time arguing with the officials but you’re not going to get calls unless you’re strong with the basketball and our kids just don’t realize that. I thought they (Harrisburg) outworked us tonight. After the first six or seven minutes, tonight it was no game at all.”

The Indians led after the first quarter on the strength of Anders and his long range shooting.

He connected on a pair of 3-pointers in the first eight minutes.

His second bomb sent DQ on a 10-3 run to break a seven-all tie to give the Tribe a 17-10 lead at the end of one.

Ridge Thompson also drilled home a trifecta in the run.

But in foul trouble for most of the evening the Indians had to use a lot of players and perhaps a few more than they would have liked.

Early in the second quarter Du Quoin had chances to put the game away.

A pair of early baskets by Evan Booker and Cody Rose had the Indians in command at 21-13.

But it was at this point of the proceedings that the Harrisburg Bulldogs dug in to defend their turf - or in this case - the brand new floor at Davenport Gym.

Coach Smithpeters’ club started to penetrate the Du Quoin defense for some inside scoring, something that the Bulldogs were unable to do successfully in the first quarter.

Madison Medley got into the scoring parade with six second quarter points that got Harrisburg back into the contest.

A pair of underneath baskets by Medley – one on a nice lob from Patrick Carver – and two free throws with 2:44 before halftime caught Harrisburg back up with Du Quoin at 23-all.

Carver also came up with four points that - combined with Medley’s points – ended a 10-2 run.

After DQ responded with an A.J. Hill bucket, Harrisburg’s Garrick Piche scored six consecutive points.

Scoring on a spin move in the lane on an inbounds pass, a pair of free throws and then a baseline drive, Piche put his Bulldogs ahead at the half 29-25.

The Indians were 4-of-16 from the field in the second quarter while Harrisburg was making its run with a 7-of-13 performance in a game-changing fashion.

“We try to have balance in our offense most of the time but at halftime we looked at that (inside scoring) is a strength we are maybe going to look at a more,” Smithpeters added. “We got the ball to our inside people and they finished. We’ve got five people on the floor that can score and tonight we showed that. We did have some turnovers tonight but overall Du Quoin is going to pressure you into some mistakes. But I can’t say I am unhappy with the turnovers if we win.”

Harrisburg continued its onslaught with two baskets without answer to begin the second half.

Two rebound baskets by Medley and Jake Stevers gave the Dawgs a 33-25 lead at the 6:34 mark.

Du Quoin tried to keep within shouting distance.

Ridge Thompson and Hill scored late third quarter baskets to cut the HB lead to 40-35 heading into the final quarter.

An Anders shot from 15 feet to start the final quarter gave Du Quoin a bit of hope at 40-37.

The hope lasted just a few moments.

The Bulldogs scored the games next eight points.

Stevers, Medley and Matt Smithpeters hit key shots in the run.

Smithpeters nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the arc and - when Medley banked home a rebound attempt – Du Quoin needed a time out at 48-37 with 3:27 remaining.

During the Harrisburg run, Du Quoin missed six shot with zero offensive rebounds.

Harrisburg, and their ‘one-and-done’ defensive effort put the game out of reach.

Du Quoin could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

The Indians were 3-of-13 from the floor in the final quarter with just a pair of useless offensive rebounds in the final seconds.

Six straight points from Harrisburg’s Stevers (four) and Medley (two) finished off the Indians.

A 3-pointer from Anders for show ended the scoring.

Added to the troubles of four turnovers in the fourth quarter – 12 overall – the Indians head into the SIRR Mississippi conference season with several question marks.

“They hammered us and hammered us and we got very little done offensively tonight and part of that was that we didn’t get many second chances,” said Crews. “You’re not always going to shoot the ball well and when you don’t you have to get some points off of your defense and we didn’t do a very good job of that. We were very careless with the ball tonight and we were more worried about being acrobatic than we were being productive. We have some work to do, to say the least.”

Harrisburg improved its standing in southern Illinois basketball with by going 21-of-49 from the field (43 percent) but they hit 3-of-7 from behind the arc.

Following Medley and Piche, the Bulldogs got balanced scoring from Stevers (9) Carver (8) and Hawkins and Smithpeters with six apiece.

Coach Smithpeters’ team was far from perfect on the night, having committed a game most 16-turnovers.

DQ was cold like a blizzard from the floor (17-of-55) hitting just 31 percent.

Other than Anders’ game best 17, DQ had no other double-figure point producers.

“We shot poorly at the line Friday night and we were fortunate to come out of West Frankfort with a win but tonight we made our free throws in the fourth quarter,” finalized Smithpeters.
“We put that behind us. We’re a good shooting team and I think we will be fine from the line. Things have been kind of hard here the last couple of years and I’m happy for these kids because they have played from behind for two years but they know how to dig themselves out of a hole now and are skilled enough to do that.”

Harrisburg (3-1) plays Eldorado at home next Tuesday night while Du Quoin will have its hands full with back- to-back games with Nashville (Friday) and Pinckneyville (Tuesday) as they start their conference season.

Du Quoin (44) - Reed 0 0 0-0 0, Gossett 0 0 0-0 0, Anders 3 3 2-2 17, Hill 2 0 0-2 4, Morgan 4 0 0-0 8, R. Thompson 1-1 2-2 7, Becker 2 0 0-0 4, T. Thompson 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-14, 3FG-3, FT-4-6, PF-17.
Harrisburg (55) - Carver 3 0 2-3 8, Stevers 4 0 1-2 9, Medley 5 0 3-6 13, Piche 4 0 2-2 10, Hawkins 2 0 2-4 6, Weatherington 0 1 0-0 3.
2FG-18, 3FG-3, FT-10-17, PF-11.
Fouled Out - Morgan, Du Quoin.
Technical Fouls - Carver, Harrisburg; R. Thompson, Du Quoin.