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Harrisburg girls upset Salisbury for district title

Kevin Oeth, Sports Editor
Posted 2/27/21

It was a tale of two halves Friday night in Salisbury. At first, things did not look good for the 13-15 Harrisburg Lady Bulldogs, as they trailed the Salisbury Panthers 23-16 at halftime. But the …

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Harrisburg girls upset Salisbury for district title

Posted

It was a tale of two halves Friday night in Salisbury. At first, things did not look good for the 13-15 Harrisburg Lady Bulldogs, as they trailed the Salisbury Panthers 23-16 at halftime. But the second-seeded Lady Bulldogs turned things around in the second half to win the Class 2 District 7 crown 47-36.

It was their second come-from-behind win in as many games.

Salisbury, the number-one seed and game host, took an early lead in the first quarter on a 6-0 run before Harrisburg senior Bailey Combs hit a three to put the Lady Bulldogs on the board. The Lady Panthers kept the lead, however, and held a slim 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Harrisburg could only manage six points as Salisbury was able to pour in 11 to take the 23-16 lead into the locker room.

Harrisburg coach Ryan Richardson’s team came out much earlier than the Lady Panthers to begin warmups and seemed to have found a new focus. “You would think I’m a magician at halftime, the way our season has gone between the first half and the second half,” said Richardson. “In reality, it’s the girls, they are smart, they’re hard workers, they are everything you want in a team and players to coach.”

Harrisburg opened the second half with an 11-4 run to tie the game but did not stop there. They continued their dominance throughout the quarter on the hot shooting of sophomore guard Brecca Thornhill who scored 13 of Harrisburg’s 18 points in the third quarter. 

The Lady Bulldogs held a slim lead, 34-29, with one quarter left to play.

Clutch free-throw shooting and a tenacious defense sealed the deal for Harrisburg as Combs was 4-4 from the line in the final stanza.

Combs led all scorers with 17 points as Thornhill finished with 15. In the third quarter, when Combs had to have her ankle re-taped, there was no drop-off in production as Thornhill stepped up and scored 13 of her 15 points during that quarter.

Sophomore Carli Ellis garnered six points while senior Hailey Emmanuel connected for three. Seniors Olivia Fischer and Hailey Franklin both added two as classmate Halle Baden and sophomore Charlea Winscott each contributed one point.

The Lady Bulldogs move on to the state tournament where they are scheduled to take on the Lady Eagles of Eugene on Wednesday at Harrisburg at 6 p.m.

Eugene has won 10 of their last 12 to take their record to 14-6 on the year. The Eagles handily defeated Lincoln 59-25 in the Class 2 District 8 championship.

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