PRAIRIE GROVE -- Harrison's boys held off several Prairie Grove rally attempts down the stretch to come away with a 46-43 win on Tuesday night.
Trailing by three points after a pair of free throws by Ben Elliot with 26.3 seconds remaining in regulation, the Tigers had two shots to tie the score, but neither attempt to send the game into overtime connected.
In the closing seconds, Riley Rhodes elevated over a defender for a long three-point try from the top of the key that missed off the left side of the rim. Prairie Grove's Alex Edmiston chased down the rebound and threw up a fadeaway 3-pointer before drifting out of bounds, but it bounced off the back of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
"We knew we had to get a shot off ... and then ended up getting two fairly decent looks," said Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston. "We were out of timeouts, and as a coach, hindsight is 20-20. If I had it to do over again, I would have kept one of my timeouts.
"I would have loved to have had it late because we needed to set up a 3 there to tie it."
The Goblins (14-5, 4-1 4A-1), fresh off their first conference loss, a 79-73 defeat at Huntsville on Friday, were just happy to get out of Prairie Grove (5-10, 2-4) with a road victory.
"They did a great job, especially defensively," said Harrison coach David Stahler. "The clogged the lane up really well and took a lot of our stuff away to make us really grind to get it.
"It's always tough on the road. We've had a couple of rough road games here in a row now. Teams take a lot of pride in playing hard on their home floor."
A three-pointer by Alex Edmiston cut the Goblins' lead to 44-43 with 1:29 remaining. Stahler used two timeouts over the next 45 seconds to make sure his players were aware of the end-of-game strategy. They didn't have to shoot it, and wanted to make sure their best free throw shooters were the only ones to handle the ball.
"We were going to take layups if we had it," Stahler said. "We knew they would eventually have to foul, so we just stretched out our offense, made sure we protected the basketball and we didn't want to take a shot unless we got a layup and nothing else."
Prairie Grove trailed 17-11 at the end of the first quarter and 23-20 at halftime before forcing a couple of turnovers to trigger a 7-0 run to begin the second half, with five of those coming from Nick Pohlman, who led all scorers with 18 points.
Harrison answered with a 6-0 run, including four points by Carson Journagan, and maintained a 37-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter thanks to a three-pointer by Dustin Gundry and another bucket by Journagan, who finished with a team-high 17 points.
A traditional three-point play by Elliot gave the Goblins a 41-34 lead with 3:41 remaining in regulation, but the Tigers roared back with a 9-3 run on three-pointers by John Mayers, Rhodes and Edmiston to set the stage for the late-game drama.
"They are a high-powered offense and they shoot it so well," Edmiston said. "They have four really good scorers, but I felt great about the way we played defensively because they had to work for basically everything they got.
"I couldn't ask for more defensively, but offensively, we struggled. Hopefully, this opened our eyes and I think we showed that we can play with anyone in the conference tonight. We took a couple of steps forward."
Harrison 17 6 14 9 -- 46
Prairie Grove 11 9 12 11 -- 43
Harrison (14-5, 4-1): Journagan 17, Shrum 11, Elliot 11, Gundry 3, Martin 2, Saylors 2.
Prairie Grove (5-10, 2-4): Pohlman 18, Mayers 10, Edmiston 7, Rhodes 6, Millwood 2.
GIRLS
Harrison 53, Prairie Grove 19
The Lady Goblins' starters scorched the nets by connecting on 60 percent of their three-pointers during the 34-point rout.
Harrison (16-4, 5-1) was 8 of 14 from long range in the first half to build a 29-12 lead after the Lady Tigers grabbed a quick 5-3 lead to open the game. The Lady Goblins' regulars, who exited after three quarters, finished 12 of 20 from three-point range. Brylie Parker missed her first attempt before hitting her next six three-pointers to lead the way with 18 points.
Prairie Grove (5-11, 0-6) took its lone lead on a three-pointer by Lexie Madewell, but didn't hit another field goal for the final 5:55 of the first quarter. That began a 22-3 run, which included four consecutive turnovers against the Goblins' full-court press defense, to push the lead to 25-8 with three minutes remaining in the first half and the Lady Tigers never recovered.
Harrison 13 16 20 4 -- 53
Prairie Grove 6 6 6 1 -- 19
Harrison (16-4, 5-1): Parker 18, Groberg 13, Shrum 9, Dillon 6, Campbell 3, Cecil 3, Oleson 1.
Prairie Grove (5-11, 0-6): Madewell 7, Wynos 5, Grant 4, Crawford 2, Meadors 1.
Preps Sports on 01/16/2019