Lady Goblins earn division’s top seed

Harrison’s girls clinched the East Division’s top seed for next week’s 4A-1 Conference tournament when the Lady Goblins earned a 55-34 victory over Shiloh Christian.

The win means Harrison (20-4, 9-1), which closes out its regular-season tonight at Farmington, will have a bye to the tournament semifinals and automatically qualify for the Class 4A North Region Tournament, which takes place the following week at Morrilton.

“This is new territory for us — play a conference tournament, then a regional tournament,” Harrison coach Doug Young said. “I can’t remember how long it’s been since we’ve played in a regional.

“At least we had this opportunity to secure a regional tournament berth. That helps take the pressure off this game. Going to Farmington is tough, and it will be their senior night. It should be a heck of a game.”

Tonight’s game could become a preview of a possible matchup in next week’s tournament. A Harrison win could drop Farmington into the West Division’s No. 2 seed if Pea Ridge defeats Gravette, meaning Harrison could possibly play Farmington again in the semifinal round.

A Farmington victory would give the Lady Cardinals the West Division’s top seed, and Harrison wouldn’t face Farmington until possibly the championship game.

“We don’t know who we will face in the conference tournament right now,” Young said. “We’ll just have to get ready for whoever we play because there are no givens, for sure.

“This is still a huge game for us because we want to be consistent. We struggled with our shooting some against Shiloh, so we need to clean that up and try to shoot the ball better.”