RAPID CITY — It’s the time of year when teams are simply looking to fight another day.
That was the case for the Harrisburg boys basketball team on Thursday afternoon.
Senior Stellen Larson notched a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds, and the No. 4 seed Tigers survived a wild finish to come away with a 65-61 triumph over fifth-seeded Watertown in an AA state quarterfinal at Ice Arena at The Monument.
Larson was one of four Harrisburg players who recorded double figures in the scoring column. Crayton Jibben had 19 points to lead the Tigers (17-5), while Myles Nour and David Doe added 13 and 10 points, respectively.
With the win, Harrisburg advances to the semifinals to face top-seeded Sioux Falls Lincoln at 6 p.m. Friday.
“We just never got to the point where we could just put them away,” Tigers coach Scott Langerock said. “Every time we’d get to six or seven or eight points maybe, we just had a couple breakdowns on the defensive end and didn’t guard the dribble, didn’t get a backside rebound, which we’ve struggled with all year.
“On offense, we just got a little impatient. We just needed to have those possessions where we got two or three reversals and got a good look with the right people getting the shots, and we just didn’t kind of clean that up down the stretch. Fourth quarter, you knew they were going to make a run.”
Trent Singer / Sioux Falls Live
There were four lead changes in the final quarter. A 9-2 run by the Arrows (16-6) to start the quarter flipped the lead in their favor before a putback by Larson with 5:15 to play gave Harrisburg a 49-48 advantage.
The Tigers never trailed for the rest of the game.
Harrisburg led by as many as five points the rest of the way, but the lead was never truly safe.
After a trey by Carter Buisker trimmed the Arrows’ deficit to 61-59 with 1:17 left, Jibben answered with a bucket on the other end to push the lead back to four.
With 11.4 seconds remaining, the Tigers were clinging to a 63-61 lead with possession but were unable to inbound the ball before a five-second violation forced an errant turnover.
However, a corner 3 by Buisker missed the mark, and Larson came down with a crucial rebound before knocking down two free throws to seal the final score.
“We had that timeout, and we just needed to regroup,” Larson said. “We had to make sure we communicated better, the best we have all season. Switching up, switching everything, getting a hand up and then just going in and crashing that rebound was the most important thing on a contest.”
Trent Singer / Sioux Falls Live
Buisker led all scorers with 23 points, while Jackson McClemens added 19 points for the Arrows, who shot 48% (18 of 44) from the floor and were 5 of 12 (41.7%) from long range.
Despite shooting only 39.6% (21 of 53) from the field, including 27.3% (6 of 22) from 3-point range, the Tigers dominated the glass, finishing with a 38-28 advantage.
After the Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, the Arrows answered with an 11-1 swing, taking an 11-8 lead on a pair of free throws by McClemens with 2:45 remaining in the opening period.
Harrisburg scored the final four points of the period to take a 12-11 lead into the second, during which the Tigers never trailed but weren’t able to extend their lead beyond five points.
Nour hit a pair of free throws in the final minute of the half to give Harrisburg a 25-22 lead at the break.
Trent Singer / Sioux Falls Live
Both teams struggled mightily from the field in the opening half, with the Tigers shooting 28% and the Arrows converting at a 32% clip.
“The thing about our team is we’ve found a lot of different ways to win games this year,” Langerock said. “We have the ability to make a lot of shots, no doubt about it, and that’s one of our strengths.
“I didn’t think our flow and our pace was great. I thought we played a little high-hipped, and our feet weren’t ready on the catch to make plays offensively. Maybe 12 days off and pressure on the defense in the moment, probably, we weren’t necessarily ready for the speed of the game, so we needed to slow that down with our feet. And our passes weren’t great because of that.”
A personal 5-0 run by Jibben allowed Harrisburg to take a nine-point lead to start the second half, but the Tigers were unable to extend their lead to double digits during the period.
A 3-pointer by Doe in the final minute of the quarter pushed Harrisburg ahead 43-37 going into the fourth.
Trent Singer / Sioux Falls Live
The Tigers scored 16 second-chance points off of 15 offensive boards.
Harrisburg shot 68% (17 of 25) from the free-throw line, while Watertown was 19 of 29 (65.5%) at the stripe.
Now, the Tigers will turn their attention to an unbeaten Patriots squad they haven’t seen since mid-December. Lincoln won that game rather convincingly, 66-53.
“We’re feeling no pressure,” Larson said about the rematch with Lincoln. “They’re the undefeated team. The last time we played them, we’re a completely new team now, and we think we’ve got a chance to beat them.
“We’re going to throw everything at them, everything we’ve got, and just play our guts out.”
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