Goblins’ defense stifles Panthers
■ Harrison remained unbeaten in league play with victory.
Siloam Springs answered Harrison’s big run to start Tuesday’s game. The Panthers didn’t have an answer for much else after that.
Harrison ended the first half on a 9-2 run to take an eight-point lead. The Goblins then outscored the Panthers 13-4 in the third quarter to open up a doubledigit lead in a 55-30 win against the Panthers at Panther Activity Center.
Siloam Springs head coach said the Goblins were as good defensively as any team the Panthers have seen this season. Siloam Springs’ total of 30 points scored was a season-low.
“Half-court defense, probably the best team we’ve seen in a long time,” Stewart said. “Give them a lot of credit. They were really sound. It’s a game where we’re going to have to shoot the ball well from the perimeter, and we weren’t able to shoot it at the pace we needed tonight.”
Harrison (17-4, 7-0) remained unbeaten in 5A/6A District 1.
“We know that they’re a really good 3-point shooting team and can be very explosive,” said Harrison coach David Stahler.
“We tried to stress getting out on the three-ball and making them put it on the floor a little bit. I thought our guys did a great job of moving their feet and had a great defensive game.”
Harrison led 13-3 after the first quarter, but Siloam Springs got back in it with an 11-2 run to pull within 15-14.
Sophomore Drew Vachon hit a pair of 3-pointers and Spencer Lashley also had a trey in that run, while Murphy
Perkins had a steal and score.
The Panthers had a couple of chances to take the lead, but couldn’t get another bucket to fall.
Harrison’s Ben Elliot knocked down a 3-pointer to get the lead back to 1814 and Carson Journagan added a pair of buckets as the Goblins pulled ahead 24-16 at halftime.
Skyler Young scored the first eight points of the third quarter for the Goblins, who led 35-18 after a Ben Elliot basket.
Diego Flores stopped the bleeding with a layup, but Noah Ditmanson scored on a tip-in to give Harrison a 3720
lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Goblins led by as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter.
“Give Stahler a lot of credit,” Stewart said. “He has got them playing really hard on defense. Then you know when you look at their shooting percentage, they were just tremendous from the two-point range. (They hit) 17 of 19 from the free-throw line, killed us on the boards. You know they had some size on us and we weren’t able to consistently keep them off the boards. They were better than us tonight.
Young led the Goblins
with 22 points, while Journagan had 15 points.
Vachon scored a seasonhigh 14 points to lead Siloam Springs.
“Drew was aggressive coming off the bench and got to the rim, got to the free-throw line,” Stewart said. “He was a bright spot tonight for us.”
Harrison 55, Siloam Springs 30
Harrison 13 11 13 18 — 55 Siloam Sprgs 3 13 4 10 — 30 Harrison: Young 22, Journagan 15, Ditmanson 6, Elliot 5, Gundry 4, Shrum 3.
Siloam Springs: Vachon 14, Lashley 3, Stewart 3, Pettit 2, Perkins 2, Flores 2, Wakefield 2, Ward 2.
Clarksville 58, Siloam Springs 43
CLARKSVILLE — Clarksville took an early lead on Siloam Springs’ boys and, after a third quarter SSHS rally, pulled away for the 58-43 win in the fourth quarter.
Clarksville led 15-6 after the first quarter and 28-17 at halftime.
Siloam Springs cut the lead to 38-35 entering the fourth quarter, where Clarksville outscored SSHS 20-8.
Spencer Lashley led Siloam Springs with 12 points, while Jacob Wakefield had 11, Murphy Perkins nine, Evan Sauer five and Drew Vachon and Diego Flores each with three.
Siloam Springs hosts Alma on Tuesday.