BROOKINGS Brookings was in search of its first win on Tuesday night and the Bobcats came close to pulling off the upset against No. 3 ranked Harrisburg, but they came up short, falling 50-41.
The Bobcats held a 33-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Harrisburg then opened the fourth with a 10-2 run and led 40-35 with 4:24 remaining in the game. Back-to-back buckets from Bergan Tetzlaff and Wiinston Plummer cut the Tiger lead to 40-39 with 3:25 left.
Brookings then trailed 44-41 with two minutes to play but the Bobcats were unable to score the rest of the game. Harrisburg then made free throws down the stretch and came away with the victory.
Brookings head coach Mike McCarty said he thought the difference in the fourth quarter was simple.
Really it came down to making shots. They had a few possessions where they had some balls that rolled around and went in and we had some shots that didnt go in. When its a tightly contested game, thats what it comes down to sometimes, McCarty said.
The Bobcats trailed 13-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Bobcats then opened the second quarter with an 8-1 run and it was 14-14 with 5:19 left in the first half. Harrisburg then led 21-18 with 3:23 left in the half and the Bobcats outscored the Tigers 6-2 in the final three minutes and change and took a 24-23 lead into halftime.
Plummer had 10 points at halftime and was 5-of-6 from the field. He finished the game with 12 points and nine rebounds off of the bench to lead the Bobcats. McCarty said it was nice to see Plummer
He gives us a big spark off the bench. He hasnt gotten to play a whole lot yet this year, so were still trying to get him into the mix and he does some good things around the basket. If we can give him the ball in a good position, I like our chances with him down low there, McCarty said.
Brookings pushed its lead to 29-25 two and half minutes into the third quarter. Harrisburg then scored five straight to give the Tigers the lead with 2:37 left in the quarter. The Bobcats answered with a free throw from Tetzlaff and a 3-pointer from Gavin Smith and that put Brookings up three heading into the final quarter.
McCarty said his team had the lead after three quarters because they were playing together on both sides of the floor.
I think as a team that was our best overall team performance on both ends of the court. So, for us it has to start on defense and we played really on the defensive end and contested everything, and thats what we need to do. Then on the offensive end, we were moving the ball and finding the open guy. Playing as a team helped put us in position to win the game, but we just came up short in the end there, McCarty said.
Brookings shot 36.4% from the field and was 3-of-15 from three. Brodie McCarty had 10 points. Smith had seven points. Tetzlaff had four points and nine rebounds.
Harrisburg had a slim 40-37 advantage in rebounds. McCarty said his team did a good job of battling on the glass on Tuesday.
I was happy with how we rebounded the ball. We gave up a couple offensive rebounds off of free throws and if we could have got a few of those the outcome may have been different. But overall, I thought we did a good job rebounding the ball, McCarty said.
Harrisburg shot 28.6% from the field and was 1-of-16 from three. Stellan Larson had 13 points and eight rebounds to lead the Tigers. Aiden Costain had eight points and seven rebounds. David Doe had eight points and six rebounds.
Brookings had 17 turnovers and Harrisburg had 10. The Bobcats were 6-of-14 at the free throw line and the Tigers were 17-of-25.
Despite dropping to 0-11 on Tuesday, McCarty said hes seeing signs that the Bobcats are close to getting their first victory. They just need to play a full game.
Were putting things together more and more. This was our best overall team effort, but it was only for 30 minutes. If we can get a game where we put that 32 minutes together [we can win]. Weve told the boys, we feel like we can play with anyone in the state, but we have to do it for all 32 minutes and we cant have lapses for a minute here or a minute there. It just has to be consistent for the whole game, McCarty said.
Brookings will hit the road on Friday as the Bobcats play at Watertown at 7:30 p.m.
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