02-25-03
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG - The Eldorado Eagles were tabbed the top seed at the Harrisburg Regional. But this club, with 13 losses, looked very beatable coming into this week.

But the Eagles managed to fly over the first hurdle Tuesday night when they held off two late Carrier Mills comebacks in a 74-60 semifinal win.

The victory, Eldorado's 18th on the year, sends the Eagles into Friday night's Harrisburg Regional title game against either Gallatin County or Harrisburg.

Those two teams play Wednesday night.

Coach Greg Goodley's crew got three strong offensive performances from Jeremy Randolph, Shannon Lane and William Carmickle to avenge a 74-73 loss to the Wildcats two weeks ago.

"The first time we played them, we didn't play very well and they played really well," Goodley said. "Tonight, I thought we did some things better. We didn't do a good job rebounding the first half and still had the lead."

Eldorado needed an early spark and they got one from Lane, as the 5-11 junior was on fire from the outset on his 3-point attempts.

He canned three early 'trifecta's.'

His first one followed a Carmickle basket in the paint to give his team a 5-0 start.

The next bomb that he dropped on Carrier Mills broke a 7-all tie to give the Eagles back the lead.

His third 20-footer, which was followed a three from teammate Lucas Griffin, pushed the Eldorado advantage to 18-9 at the end of the first quarter.

"The last time we played them they hit two 3-pointers in the game. Tonight they hit four in the first quarter." said Carrier Mills coach Jon Watts. "Their outside play got us tonight."

Brandon Evans got the Wildcats off to a good start in the second quarter, scoring four quick points.

His rebound basket with 7:14 left in the second cut the lead to 18-13.

Then Kyle Hines got in the scoring act by hitting a pair of shots.

First on a steal and a lay in.

Then, on a pull up jumper in the lane. Both of these shots followed another Evans score.

Thanks to three Eldorado turnovers, Hines' second bucket evened the score at 22.

But then the Eagles responded with a 7-0 run to end the half.

"We worked hard to get back even with them, and then we just quit." said a dejected Watts after the game.

Walt Hammond, a 6-5 junior who was in foul trouble from the opening tap, scored in the paint to give Eldorado back the lead.

Then Lane scored on a drive to the basket and Justin Fetcho drilled home a 3-pointer to make it 29-22 at the intermission.

Carrier Mills' Tyler Johnson scored five consecutive points on a 3-pointer and a lay in to cut the Eldorado lead to 34-29.

At this point the Eagles went inside to Carmickle, who went biserark in the paint scoring eight straight points.

He scored on a pair of jump hooks in the lane and then got a fast break pass from Lane the resulted in an easy basket.

One more short jumper on the next trip down the floor and Eldorado was in command at 42-29 with 2:59 left in the third quarter.

"He is such a horse on the inside," added Watts. "Last year he was more of an outside player but he has improved a lot."

In a game that featured many personal player scoring binges, Carrier Mills' Hines was not to be outdone.

He scored eight-straight points to cut the Eldorado lead to 48-42 with 6:14 left in the game.

The fouls began to mount against the Wildcats and the top-seeded Eagles began to spread the advantage from the foul line.

And the top benifactor from the Carrier Mills fouling spree was Randolph.

When wasn't beating the CM press with lay ups, he was drawing fouls and draining free throws to put the game out of reach.

Randolph scored 17 of his team-high 24 in the final eight minutes.

After Hines hit a 3-pointer with 2:15 to go that cut the lead to 60-53, Randolph broke the CM pressure and scored taking the ball to the basket to push the lead back to nine.

He then hit six-straight free throws (9-of-10 in the quarter) in the final 1:52 to ice the game to send Eldorado to the title tilt.

Hines did manage to hit another 3-pointer, this one was with 1:28 to go.

It turned out to be the last points of his career as he finished with 1,810 points.

"We played a heck of a game but we didn't get enough shots to fall." finalized Watts, whose team finished the season at 17-9. "I am proud of these kids, we accomplished 75 percent of our goals this year."

Eldorado got 24 from Randolph, 19 from Carmickle and 16 from Lane.

The Eagles hit on 22-of-28 shots from the foul line and made six 3-point shots.

Hines finished with 32 on the night.

Evans added 14, Johnson had 11 and Gulley scored three. Gary Dillard was the other starter and he was held scoreless.