The Harrisburg girls and boys have their sights set on next week’s district tournaments. Wins for both teams over Fayette on Friday cemented the top seeds for both teams. (See brackets on Page 8).

Girls

Fayette 37

Harrisburg 54

The Harrisburg girls on Friday improved to 17 wins for the first time since winning the state title in 2012 with a Courtwarming win over Central State 8 rival Fayette, 54-37.

“It was Courtwarming. It’s a conference game. And it could impact district seatings. Those are the things we talked about before the game,” said Harrisburg coach Jaryt Hunziker. “And now we’re 2-0 against Fayette for the year.”

Friday’s game marked Harrisburg’s second win in a row after a four-game losing streak. For Fayette, now 10-14 overall, it was the second loss in a row, putting the Falcons out of contention for a winning record.

Fayette continues to battle illness and has been without the stellar defense of starter Browyn Eubanks since the junior left the team two weeks ago. Senior scoring leader Oakleigh Hill was among Fayette’s starting lineup despite sitting out of practice Thursday due to sickness. She still managed to lead the Falcons with a team-high 14 points with four 3-point buckets. One of those threes came from deep as the buzzer signaled the end of the first quarter.

“We’ve had a lot of kids again facing sickness,” said Fayette coach Rachel Harding. “Oakleigh missed our practice and missed our game plan but still came out ready to go and hit a buzzer-beater to end the first quarter for us.”

With fresh legs after two days off since knocking off Russellville on the prior Tuesday, Harrisburg was at full force on Friday, taking control of the game early with its 1-2-2 defensive pressure. After giving up the opening basket of the game on a backdoor layup by Fayette freshman Eastin Hill, the Lady Bulldogs rattled off 18 straight points. The run included four straight 3-point baskets.

Oakleigh Hill sank two of her four triples on the night in the final two minutes of the first quarter, including a buzzer-beater, but Fayette struggled against the defensive pressure and trailed 22-8 after eight minutes.

“Harrisburg is really long, and that’s where they get most of their steals and most of their deflections,” Harding said about Harrisburg’s defense. “They’re pretty good at their 1-2-2. They like to close those traps in the dead corners. But I thought we did a good job handling the pressure toward the end of the game.”

Harrisburg extended its lead to 14 points by halftime, outscoring the Falcons 10-6 in the second quarter.

Harding reminded her players at the break that they had cut deficits like that before. “We were down 15 or 16 against Russellville. We came all the way back and we’re within one and played our hearts out. We’re not used to climbing out of a deficit like that, but we have to come out and hit some shots.”

Harrisburg maintained its lead in the third quarter, scoring 12 points all from 3-point distance. Junior Lorelai Hunziker scored nine of those points.

“With us getting out to a great start, it’s huge. It dictated the tempo,” Coach Hunziker said. “I thought we shot the ball well early. I thought we did a good job of rebounding at times. We took care of the basketball. We did a lot of good things well tonight.”

Harrisburg senior point guard Avelina McKinzie led three Lady Bulldogs in double-figures with a game-high 19 points. She sank a 3-pointer in the first quarter and was perfect from the foul line, making all four free-throw attempts.

Hunziker added 15 points with four triples. Sophomore Brette Ackman connected three times from the arc for nine points.

On Monday, Harrisburg was to face longtime rival Salisbury on Senior Night, but the game was canceled due to winter weather. The Lady Bulldogs cap off the regular season with a CS8 game against winless New Bloomfield Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press.

As the top seed in next week’s district tournament, the Lady Bulldogs earned a first-round bye. They will face either fourth-seeded Glasgow or fifth-seeded Marceline at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Fayette was itching for a win on Monday, with the hopes of knocking off former longtime Lewis & Clark Conference rival Marceline for a chance to clinch the No. 5 seed in next week’s district tournament. But the games were called off due to an unexpected snowstorm that morning. Fayette now is seeded sixth, behind fifth-seeded Marceline and will face third-seeded Salisbury at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Glasgow.

Monday’s game was also when Falcon senior KeBrea Fair was expected to reach a milestone of 500 career rebounds before a home crowd. She entered Friday’s game just 19 shy of the mark and pulled down 14 boards against Harrisburg with 11 points for the double-double.

Oakleigh Hill led the team with 14, followed by Eastin Hill with nine and freshman starter Rylan Roberts with three.

On Tuesday, the Falcons were scheduled to wrap up Central State 8 action at South Callaway. The regular-season finale is scheduled for Thursday at Jamestown.

Fayette and Marceline were working to reschedule the game as the Advertiser went to press on Friday.

Boys

Fayette 54

Harrisburg 75

Fresh off an exhaustive and emotional one-point win at Class 4 Mexico the night before, the Harrisburg Bulldogs raced out to a big lead on the way to a solid Courtwarming victory over Fayette on Friday night, 75-43.

While Friday’s contest was between two teams with strategically different season goals—Harrisburg is out to make its mark in the postseason while Fayette is in the first year of a rebuilding process with a new head coach—it bared significant implications for the postseason for both squads. Harrisburg matched its season total from a year ago with 19 wins and was aiming for the top seed in next week’s district tournament while also staying in contention for the crown in the inaugural Central State 8 basketball season. The Bulldogs won a district title last season but fell to powerhouse Salisbury in the state sectionals. On Monday, Harrisburg hoped to further cement its stake for the top seed with a game against Salisbury, but the game was canceled due to winter weather.

“We want to give ourselves the best chance we can to win that district title. And to do that you need to give yourself a good seed in districts. We’re in pretty good position for the number one seed right now,” said Harrisburg coach Kyle Fisher after Friday’s game.

Fayette, meanwhile, is working to rebuild a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2021. Its improvement this year can hardly be measured by its win-loss record. But to the Falcon faithful in the stands, the development is evident.

“One thing I’m so proud of, and I hope people see, is this team has not quit at any point in any game this year,” said Fayette coach Brandon Friebe. “They came out and I feel like we did some things better. We still made some mistakes and missed a lot of easy shots, but it’s a tough night and a tough place to play with a lot of young kids.”

Fayette also hoped to improve its seeding in next week’s district tournament by defeating former longtime Lewis & Clark Conference rival Marceline on Monday. But unexpected heavy snowfall that morning cancelled the game. Although Marceline boasts a better win-loss record, a head-to-head win would have given the Falcons a solid chance to claim the sixth seed in the seven-team district. Ultimately, the Falcons were seeded seventh and will face second-seeded Westran at 6:30 p.m. on Monday.

The district tournament will be hosted by Glasgow.

The Bulldogs set the tone early in their Courtwarming game on Friday, turning a 17-2 run into a 21-9 lead after one quarter. Harrisburg kept the pressure high in the second quarter to take a commanding 41-16 lead at the break on the way to the 32-point victory.

“Our guys had a huge emotional win last night over Mexico. We wanted to make sure we bounced back tonight and didn’t have a letdown,” Fisher said. “I thought our guys did a nice job of responding right from the start. They played extremely hard. We didn’t shoot the ball great tonight; we didn’t finish well. But for the most part, I thought our defense was there most of the night. A credit to our guys for coming out and playing the right way right from the get-go.”

Harrisburg senior Trace Combs led all scorers with 22 points. The senior eclipsed 1,500 career points the night before at Mexico and was presented with a game ball commemorating the milestone before Friday’s tipoff.

Junior Rylee Robinson added nine points, and senior Bryce Ott had eight as 10 Bulldogs made their marks in the scorebook.

Fayette senior Kaleb Friebe and junior Payton Oeth finished with 10 points each to lead seven Fayette scorers. Sophomore Colten Cross added eight points, and freshman starter Blake Braden finished with six.

“We knew it was going to be a hostile environment,” said Coach Friebe. “It’s their Courtwarming and a place that is historically difficult to play anyway. We knew that we were going to have to be mentally tough. There were moments in the first half when I thought we did a good job. We kept our composure for the most part, but we didn’t communicate well. We missed backdoor cutters and those types of things. Those are all communication issues.

“We challenged them at halftime to clean some of that up, and they did. They played a little better in the second half.”

With two wins on the season, both against Linn but with only one counted in district play, Fayette hoped to notch its second Central State 8 victory at South Callaway (10-11) on Tuesday after the Advertiser had gone to press. The Falcons close out the regular season at Jamestown on Thursday.

Harrisburg was stated to play its final CS8 game of the season Tuesday. The Bulldogs face another Class 2 powerhouse team in fourth-ranked Norwood (22-2) at home on Friday for the regular-season finale.

As the top seed in next week’s district tournament, Harrisburg earned a first-round bye and will face either fourth-seeded Glasgow or fifth-seeded Sturgeon at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.