Bulldogs fell short of Goreville championship by 11 points

The Harrisburg boys basketball team gave it all it had at the Goreville Invitational last week, but fell short losing to the host and second place finisher Goreville by one point and to the champion Benton Rangers by eight points to finish third.

“With two of our starters not being with us during the summer we’re still getting to know each other, but I think we have a heck of an upside,” said Harrisburg coach Andy Fehrenbacher. “Overall for the tournament our rebounding was pretty good. Benton out rebounded us, but the other three games we dominated the boards.”

Harrisburg opened the tournament with a 49-48 loss to Goreville before beating Hardin County, 68-33. After Benton beat the Bulldogs, 53-45, the Bulldogs beat Anna-Jonesboro, 62-38, to finish with a 2-2 record. Last year the Bulldogs finished in fourth place with a 2-3 record.

Jalon Ellis and Cayden Young were named to the All-Tournament Team. Ellis averaged 16 points a game with a high of 28 against Hardin County and Young averaged 15 points with a high of 16 against Goreville and Benton.

“Cayden wasn’t a starter last year, but he’s put the time in to move into the starting lineup,” Fehrenbacher said. “He’ll deserve everything he gets this year.”

This week the Bulldogs will host Hardin County (0-4) Tuesday at Davenport Gym before hitting the road again for games against at Gallatin County (1-5) Friday night and West Frankfort (2-4) Saturday night.

“We’re excited to play at home before the home crowd,” Fehrenbacher said. “Gallatin and West Frankfort are a lot like Hardin County in that they graduated a lot and are young. We just need to come out and stay focused and keep pushing. We’ll try to fine tune some things and hopefully we’ll have a big week.”

In the tournament opener against Goreville, Harrisburg took the early lead 8-4 and extended its lead to 20-10 with1:59 left in the first quarter. The Blackcats cut the lead to six heading into the second quarter.

“I think we had 18 practices before that first game, so the kids were really excited and really ready to play a game at that point and I was too just to see where we were at,” Fehrenbacher said. “I was very happy with the intensity we came out with and the focus. We shot very, very well in that first quarter and jumped up on a really good Goreville team. We scored 20 in that first quarter and to start the season out like that is fantastic.”

After Harrisburg extended its lead back to eight in the first 1:50 of the second quarter, Goreville went on a 13-6 run to cut the lead to 30-29, with 1:16 left in the half. Owen Rann was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 1.6 seconds remaining and made two of three free throw attempts to give the Bulldogs a 32-29 lead at intermission.

“Then Cayden got a couple fouls and had to come out and Ellis also had some fouls, so as hot as a start as we had the guys who were doing the scoring had to set out and Goreville made a run,” Fehrenbacher said.

Ellis scored to open the third quarter to up the lead to five, but the Blackcats went on an 11-2 run to take a 40-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“We were still in the lead at the half, but I knew they’re a good team playing on their floor and that’s always a challenge with them,” Fehrenbacher said. “I told the team at the half we were just going to have to stay the course and keep pushing. They like to put a lot of ball pressure in the backcourt and look for traps and we got a little careless in that second and third quarter and we had way too many turnovers (17) and it was silly stuff. We had a total of 25 turnovers and yet we still lost by only one point.”

After the break, Goreville continued the run with a jumper from the left corner, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Mann and Ellis tied the score, 42-42, with 5:09 remaining.

After Goreville regained the lead with a 3-pointer, Adrian Mann scored on a one-handed shot in the lane and Young followed with a short basket to take the lead, 46-45, with 2:14 left. Twenty-one seconds later Goreville regained the lead again, but Ellis scored on a layup with 28 seconds remaining to retake the lead, 48-47.

“Ellis penetrated from the left side and scored on a pretty tough shot,” Fehrenbacher said. “It was a very athletic play.”

With 11 seconds left Drake Buffington was fouled on a shot from under the basket and made both free throws to take the lead. Ellis took the inbounds pass and drove the length of the floor, but his last second shot was blocked by Nick King.

“We were a step late getting in the help side where I think we could have had a steal and the game would have been over, but instead he got it and we fouled him on the shot,” Fehrenbacher said. “We then came down and Ellis moved into the lane and got bumped and stuff.”

Young led the game with 16 points followed by Ellis with 11, Mann 10, Rann six, Braxton Murphy with three and Reed Rider with two.

In the second game, Harrisburg led 18-13 after the first quarter before exploding in the second quarter to take a 40-20 lead at the half. The Bulldogs extended their lead to 63-28 heading into the fourth quarter to trigger the running clock.

“I was happy we bounced back and everybody contributed,” Fehrenbacher said. “In basketball the running clock is triggered at the start of the fourth quarter, but I had already taken my starters out before the end of the third quarter.”

The Bulldogs were led by Ellis’ 28 points and Young with 15. Mann, Rann and Murphy scored six points each with Aiden Unthank scoring four, Rider two and Colton Wheeler one.

“Ellis scoring 28 points was him playing in just three quarters,” Fehrenbacher said. “He runs the floor well. He attacks the basket real well. He’s very athletic. He jumps and is strong going to the hole. He has a strong first step. If he gets by you he’ll get there.”

Benton jumped out to 5-0 lead, but Young split a pair of free throws and scored on a jumper from the free-throw line and Rider scored to tie the score, 5-5, with 1:49 left in the first quarter. The Rangers scored on back-to-back 3-point shots to take the lead for good to close out the first quarter.

The closest the Bulldogs could get for the rest of the game was two points five times with the last being 41-39 with 4:47 left in the game.

“As bad as the turnovers in the Goreville game, we only had four against Benton,” Fehrenbacher said. “Benton is super long with Docker Tedeshi and Nolan Schafer and we did a good job handling that. They play a 1-3-1 which makes it difficult, but our problem was we settled for way too many perimeter shots. We were only five of 30 from the 3-point line. In the first half we missed our first 12 and finally made our 13th try. They want to you take that shot and if you’re hot you stand a good chance of beating them, but if you’re not, you’re not beating them.”

Young led the team with 16 points with Rider finishing with 10 and Mann nine. Ellis was held to just two baskets and two free throws for six points.  Rann and Murphy added two points each.

Against Anna-Jonesboro the Bulldogs jumped out to an 11-1 lead and never looked back taking a 16-6 lead after the first quarter, a 28-17 lead at the half and 47-24 heading into the fourth quarter.

Ellis rebounded to score 19 points with Young and Murphy scoring 13 points each. Rann finished with nine points, Mann six and Rider two.