Harrisburg vs. Eldorado - 2A Harrisburg Regional

Eagles' big third quarter dooms HB
Price pours in 30 in Eldorado victory; up next Carterville Wednesday night

02/18/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELDORADO - Eldorado has been used to senior Parker Price playing well in big situations in his four years for head coach Josh Bradley.

In what could have been his final basketball game for his school on Saturday night, he helped make sure his team would play again on Wednesday.

Price scored a game best 30 points and his teammates defensively forced Harrisburg into a nightmarish third quarter stretch as the Eagles advanced to the 2A Harrisburg Regional semifinals with a 65-47 win Saturday night at Duff/Kingston Gym.

With the victory, the Eagles will now face Carterville in the semifinals as they extended their record to 18-9.

Price led an attack that shot the ball extremely well, converting on 23-of-38 shots overall, with the final numbers being 19-of-29 on shots inside of the arc.

This was the real damage as it turned out for Harrisburg and head coach Andy Fehrenbacher.

The Bulldogs inability to stop Price and his teammates from getting to the rim and getting to the foul line ended their season at 11-18.

“That is what he (Price) does best. He can get to the rim. We feel like if we can spread you out and make a few passes, he can take advantage of that. We were able to finish through contact and we made some tough shots. It is something we've done pretty well in the second half of the season,” said Coach Bradley.

The Eagles hit on 15-of-24 free throw attempts in the contest, putting pressure on the visitors offensively.

Coach Bradley got 16 points from his son junior Boston Bradley, nine points from senior Josh Owens and eight points from senior Gage Heath as the Eagles will now get a shot at the Lions on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs were topped by junior guard Camron Ande and senior guard Myles Crank as both ended up with 16 points.

However they didn't produce a good game shooting the ball (18-of-48, 5-of-14 from the arc) and seven third quarter turnovers, 14 for the game, ended the first season of Coach Fehrenbacher at running the program.

“It has been par for the course for us this season. Teams have shot well against us. Our defense hasn't been good,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “We had those injuries in January (Crank, Fehrenbacher) and we have kids who are not playing 100 percent. They did their best but we have been limited defensively.”

Although the Bulldogs are the host of the regional, the first round games are played at the higher seed so Harrisburg (#9) had to travel up the road to Eldorado (#8) for its postseason opener.

Things were actually pretty good for the visiting team in the first eight minutes.

Seniors Andrew Unthank (seven) and Nate Lawrence (five) each scored points in the first quarter.

Lawrence scored all of his points in the first with two baskets on offensive rebounds and 1-of-2 free throws.

His second rebound put-back gave Harrisburg a 14-10 lead.

But Price and Bradley each scored inside to even things at 14-14 at the end of one.

The Bulldogs made a nice run on the Eagles in the second quarter.

Unthank, Crank and Fehrenbacher all hit 3-point shots while Ande also got points on a nice drive in the lane.

The Fehrenbacher 3-pointer, his only points of the game with 3:25 to go before halftime, forced an Eldorado timeout as Harrisburg led 27-20.

After Bradley free throw and a Price score, Crank added three-consecutive free throws as he was fouled on a 3-point attempt.

Eldorado closed the gap to just 33-31 at halftime with points from Price and Heath.

Then Coach Bradley's club controlled the third quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 20-3.

Five straight points to begin the second half by Eldorado gave the Eagles the lead.

Price scored twice on, you guessed it, drives to the basket while Owens hit 1-of-2 from the line.

Harrisburg's only points of the quarter came from Ande, who hit the first of two free throws.

He missed the second shot but Unthank got the rebound and got the ball back to Ande for a score to tie the game at 36-36 with 4:40 left.

The Bulldogs wouldn't score again the remainder of the period.

Price canned his second 3-pointer of the game to give the Eagles a jump-start on a 15-0 run.

Bradley scored after grabbing a rebound of his missed shot that turned into a three-point play.

A steal and fast break layup by Heath, a drive for an “And-1” by Owens, two free throws by Price and another score from Owens, this time on a rebound put-back, made it 51-36 at the end of three quarters.

During this third quarter run, Harrisburg hit just 1-of-10 shots to go with those seven turnovers.

The Bulldogs did get five-consecutive points (Ande 3-pointer, Unthank score in the paint) to begin the fourth quarter but Eldorado closed out the game with Price adding another 3-pointer from the left wing and Bradley and Heath providing points.

Price added two more baskets, both on drives, to close out the win.

Ande ended his junior season just six points shy of 1,000 for his career (994) as he will be one of the key players returning for Coach Fehrenbacher next season.

“We became one-dimensional offensively with Cam and that is something (more balance) we will have to develop moving forward,” said Coach Fehrenbacher. “Tonight was sort of a continuation of what has been going on the last three weeks. They (Eldorado) were the better team tonight and we didn't do ourselves any favors.”

The Eagles also won the rebounding battle, 29-17, including 10 offensive rebounds.

“Owens and Boston both hit the glass and have been our leading rebounders and both of them are almost double-digits rebounding every single night,” said Coach Bradley. “We feel like if we can get second chance opportunities we can win games.”

Eldorado will face Carterville (24-6) who is the #2 seed in the sub-sectional on Wednesday night at Harrisburg's Davenport Gym in the first game of a semifinal double-header.

Vienna and Carmi-White County will clash in the second game.

“It (dribble penetration) is something we have worked on the second half of the season. We like to spread you out with the guards we've got we try to exploit that a little bit. I thought the guys did a really good job in the second half,” said Coach Bradley. “We have a tough matchup against Carterville. I hope we can spread them out a little bit.”

2A Harrisburg Regional	1	2	3	4	-	F
Harrisburg	14	19	03	11	-	47
Eldorado	14	17	20	14	-	65

Harrisburg (47) – Downey 0 0 0-0 0, Ande 4 1 5-7 16, Crank 5 2 0-1 16, Rider 0 0 0-0 0, Fehrenbacher 0 1 0-0 3, Mann 0 0 0-0 0, Lawrence 2 0 1-2 5, Unthank 2 1 0-1 7. 2FG-13, 3FG-5, FT-6-11, PF-18.
Eldorado (65) – Price 8 3 5-6 30, Bradley 4 1 5-7 16, Owens 3 0 3-5 9, Heath 4 0 0-0 8, Woolcott 0 0 2-4 2, Phelps 0 0 0-2 0. 2FG-19, 3FG-4, FT-15-24, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.