There are bad shooting nights and then there are legendary bad shooting nights and unfortunately for the North Harrison Cougars it was the latter during their game last Tuesday night against the visiting Clarksville Generals. North Harrison struggled to get a ball in the basket from every position leading to a 52-37 win for Clarksville.
âWe couldnât get a basket to go in early and then our effort dropped because of that.â said North Harrison coach Ross Schulz. âYou canât do that. Youâve got to keep your defense up. Itâs just frustrating after a good, hard-fought effort the other night (against Crawford County). Weâre young and inexperienced and weâll have to run with that and do it again.â
Neither team shot the ball well at the beginning of the game with the Cougars getting three of ten shots to go down and the Generals hitting just two of their eight shots. By the end of the first quarter the two teams were locked in a 7-7 tie.
Things went really bad for North Harrison in the second quarter. The Cougars put in just one of their twelve attempts from the field, that one coming from Grayson Clunie in the final minute of the half. The Generals, meanwhile, turned their first quarter shooting woes around and hit seven of their twelve shots and outscored the Cougars 16-3 to take a 23-10 lead at halftime.
âIt wasnât terrible,â said Schulz of his teamâs first half play. âThey scored 23 but if we hit a few of our normal shots that we do itâs 23-18, 23-20. I wasnât in too bad of mood at that point, knowing that we came out and could hit a few of them. The effort just dropped when the shots werenât falling.â
Schulz said his team wasnât getting the offensive rebounds they needed to match the Generals.
âThey went and got it and we didnât,â said Schulz. âThat canât happen effort-wise. (Jacob Seward), we knew he was a good ball player and even (Ray McClendon) with his attacking. We got lost a couple of times and that canât happen. He knocked down a bunch of shots, twelve in the first half. Weâve just got to do better with what we prepared for and be ready for it.â
The Cougars got a few more shots to fall in the third quarter hitting four of nine from the field but Clarksville still had the hotter hand with six of nine shots going down for a 36-20 lead. The Cougars won the fourth quarter by a point with the help of some free throws but the damage was already done and the Generals went how with the 52-37 win.
âWe never had that push that weâve had before in the past until it was too little too late,â said Schulz of he second half. âIt was a frustrating night for us. It was the first time, effort-wise, that I was frustrated all year really. Thereâs been some execution times of course. The seasonâs not over and weâve got to keep fighting. If we thought that was tough look at the schedule coming up.â
North Harrison scored eleven players but the numbers were low with Dawson Senn leading the team with six points. The Cougars were just 12 of 45 from the field (27%) and cashed in 8 of 13 free throws. North Harrison had 12 turnovers for the game.
âYou try to give them confidence to do what they can do and hope they want to play hard for you,â Schulz said. âThey have all year. The best way to coach it, and coach (Bobby) Knight always said it, the motivator is that bench, put some new guys in that will get after it. Iâve had to do that some this year, five in if I have to. Itâs all about effort at this point.â
Jacob Seward led the Generals with 19 points and Ray McClendon finished with 12. Jawan Walker added 10 for Clarksville who put in 22 of 45 from the field (49%) but two of just six from the free throw line. The Generals finished with 11 turnovers.
âWeâve got three games left, all really tough ones,â said the North Harrison coach. âI think itâs all about effort. Weâve got to practice our execution but if we donât have better effort itâs going to be two or three losing games going into the sectional and we donât want that. Weâll prepare how we always do and if the effortâs not there somebody else will get in and do it.â
Clarksville 7 16 13 16 â 52
North Harrison 7 3 10 17 â 37
Clarksville â Smith 5, McClendon 12, Leezer 4, Seward 19, Freeman 2, Walker 10
North Harrison â Farnsley 3, Voyles 4, Langdon 5, Clunie 2, Dunn 5, Hoehn 2, Smith 2, Fessel 1, Senn 6, Schenck 2, Heun 5
3-pointers â Smith, Seward 2, Farnsley, Dunn, Heun