12-29-10
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELDORADO – After going 23-years without an Eldorado Holiday Tournament championship the Harrisburg Bulldogs finally found a way to winners circle on Wednesday night in the title game with long-standing rival Massac County.

Getting some key plays down the stretch from eventual tournament MVP Tyler Smithpeters and a strong defensive stand in the final minute – Harrisburg reigned supreme in the EHT for the first time since 1987 with a nail-biting 61-57 win in front of a packed house at Duff-Kingston Gym.

Smithpeters hit the go-ahead bucket on a drive down the left baseline and then snagged a key rebound on the next Massac County possession to help seal the victory.

After coughing up five early turnovers in the fourth quarter to allow Massac County to get a lead – the young Bulldogs settled down and finished the game by forcing the Patriots into three late miscues that proved to be too much to overcome for Coach Joe Hosman's team.

Harrisburg saw its record improve to 13-1 with the championship win while Massac fell to 9-6.

Smithpeters finished with 22-points and his score with :30 remaining put Harrisburg up 58-57.

Massac County had two chances to get back the lead but Malcom Amos missed on a drive to the basket which resulted in a Smithpeters rebound and 1-of-2 free throws with :12.7 to go.

The Patriots' had a final shot but Amos was whistled for a charging foul on a drive to the basket to give Harrisburg the ball back.

Two free throws from Capel Henshaw with :04.0 left gave the Bulldogs their long awaited triumph.

“People talk at that (not winning a championship) way too much. I look back on those years that we played in the championship and we were happy to be there we are still happy to be here and 14 other teams would trade places with us,” said Coach Randy Smithpeters. “This is a great group here and this was a terrific game like we thought it would be.”

Massac County had opportunities to win the contest but wilted down the stretch – especially at the foul line.

The Patriots were just 4-of-10 in the fourth quarter from the charity stripe and finished 11-of-20 for the game.

“You can't miss free throws like we did and expect to win,” said Coach Hosman. “We had a couple of defensive breakdowns and took a bad shot there at the end but the bottom line is that if we make free throws down the stretch we probably win.”

Harrisburg hit the ones late that mattered to end a losing drought in title games.

Since the 1987 win – the Bulldogs had been “bride's maids” eight times in the event which included a 72-70 loss in the championship game a year ago to Meridian after blowing a 10-point lead in the final two minutes.

However on this night – the young Bulldogs closed out the tournament showing a lot of poise for a club that consists mostly of underclassmen.

“We are young but we didn't play young and we haven't played young all season,” added Coach Smithpeters. “We have a lot of shooters and that creates problems for teams. We are a tough matchup because the big guys can't come out and guard shooters and we have shooters all the way around.”

Massac's Corey Ayala – a 6-foot-2 senior guard and three year starter for Coach Hosman – went on a scoring burst for the Patriots late in the game that appeared to have given the Pats another championship.

He scored five consecutive points to give Massac a 55-51 advantage with 4:00 minutes left which changed the momentum.

But Henshaw – a 6-foot-3 sophomore – made a nice baseline move for a basket to cut the lead to just two and helped set up the Smithpeters' late heroics.

Ryne Roper – another sophomore guard at 6-foot-2 - made the defensive play of the game in taking the charge from Amos and the Henshaw free throws iced away the victory for the Bulldogs.

“We got a big charge their at the end taken by Roper (Ryne) and we talk about it that we don't have that many charges this season,” added Coach Smithpeters. “That was probably the biggest play of the game.”

From the outset – Harrisburg found the outside range.

The Bulldogs canned five of their nine 3-pointers in the game in the first eight minutes.

Smithpeters, Roper and Henshaw all nailed long shots in that opening quarter as did teammate Keelin Rasch.

The Rasch trifecta gave Harrisburg a 19-17 lead.

Ayala finished the contest as Massac's top scorer with 16-points with his first basket closed the quarter at 19-all.

Smithpeters netted two more 3-pointers with his second bomb finishing the half at 37-33 Harrisburg.

Harrisburg got its biggest lead of the contest in the third quarter as a result of a 8-2 run to push the lead to 48-41.

Again Smithpeters led the charge with a pair of baskets including a transition score.

He then picked up an assist to senior Hunter Price to finish the run.

While Harrisburg flourished from the outside (9-of-19 from behind the arc) Massac County missed all eight of its 3-point attempts.

Failures from behind both of the lines (free throw and arc) doomed the Patriots as Coach Hosman was going for win number 601 after reaching 600 earlier in the day in a semifinal win over Anna-Jonesboro.

Massac ended up 23-of-45 for the game overall and held a 29-23 rebounding edge.

Following Ayala for the Pats were two other double-figure scorers with Amos finishing with 13 and Hayden Farmer ended up with 11.

Harrisburg finished 23-of-53 overall from the floor while Smithpeters ended up leading all scorers with his 22-points.

Three other teammates ended up with double-figures with Henshaw adding 13-points while Roper and senior guard Jalen Stewart finished with ten each.

“They (Harrisburg) are a very good shooting team. They're as good a shooting team as there is in the state,” added Coach Hosman. “We let them get some open 3's early in the game. When you come off of those kids Roper, Smithpeters and Henshaw they are hitting about 60 percent it seems like. They hit a lot of big shots. We are going to have to play better defense against them.”

Massac County (57) – Skinner 2 0 0-0 4, Ayala 6 0 4-6 16, Glass 3 0 0-0 6, Amoz 5 0 3-3 13, Bazor 2 0 3-8 7, Farmer 5 0 1-3 11. 2FG-23, 3FG-0, FT- 11-20, PF-17.
Harrisburg (61) – Rasch 0 1 0-0 3, Smithpeters 5 3 3-5 22, Henshaw 4 1 2-6 13, roper 2 2 0-0 10, Stewart 2 2 0-1 10, Scott 0 0 0-0 0, Price 1 0 1-2 3.
2FG-14, 3FG-9, FT-6-14, PF-20.
Fouled Out – Glass - Massac County.
Technical Fouls – None.

HERRIN 61, ANNA-JONESBORO 42
In a rematch of the 2009 third place game – Herrin (4-9) got 21-points from DeMarlo Harris in the win.

Teammate Bobby Mannie added 17-points for Coach Irv Lukens' club.

A-J (8-7) finished fourth despite 15-points from Tylor Duckworth.

EHT ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM consists of MVP Tyler Smithpeters and Keelin Rasch of Harrisburg; Malcom Amos and Corey Ayala of Massac County; Bobby Mannie of Herrin; Brady Wright of Anna-Jonesboro; Jerry Johnson of Meridian; Lawson Warren of Carmi-White County; Tyler Hutcheson of Fairfield; Denton Reed of Galatia and Patrick Lowe of Gallatin County.
The Duff-Kingston Award went to Dillan Harrison of Carrier Mills.