City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
--

HARRISBURG — When you’ve got a go-to guy in your lineup and on the floor — as the Harrisburg Cougars do in dependable 6-3 senior Chris Whitaker — there’s really no covert action in play at any point in any particular game.

Bottom line is you put the ball in his hands and let him go to work.

You let him go to work frequently, too, but especially when the contest remains up for grabs and a needed result is hanging in the balance.

Well, Whitaker got it done — early, in the middle of a back-and-forth Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division dustup with neighboring Central Dauphin East and down the stretch when possessions become even more critical.

Pocketing a game-high 31 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, Whitaker’s splashy salvo carried Harrisburg to a 66-61 triumph over its backyard rivals in a game featuring more stops and starts than an afternoon on the Schuylkill Expressway at rush hour since there were 45 fouls whistled by the gentlemen sporting the striped shirts.

Whitaker also grabbed eight rebounds, dished out one assist and swatted away a couple of shots as Kirk Smallwood’s feisty outfit (8-2, 4-2) collared their fifth straight victory. A 43-28 edge on the boards also helped the ‘Burg, especially since the Cougars splashed just nine of their 26 looks from the free-throw stripe.

“Definitely felt that hitting the glass was a huge part of our success tonight,” said Whitaker, who rang up 30-plus points for the third time this season while converting 13 of his 27 field-goal tries and five of his nine free-throw attempts. “In practice, we work on that a lot. We do a lot of rebounding drills working on us hitting the glass. That was one thing we wanted to focus on.

“We knew they were a good rebounding team, so we wanted to come out and dominate the boards. I definitely felt like that kind of got my shot going a little bit, being able to dominate and being able to get to the glass and get extra shots.”

Whitaker was the lone Harrisburg player to reach double digits, but Penn State football commit Micah Parsons yanked down 10 rebounds, Elijah Barrett snared a number of his eight caroms after the break and Na’Reece Glenn latched on to seven.

“Phenomenal,” Whitaker added several times, referring to the work the 6-4 Parsons and the 6-5 Barrett did on the backboards.

Justin Henry, East’s indomitable 5-5 backcourt dynamo, dropped in 19 second-half points to lead Don Ross’ suddenly struggling Panthers (7-3, 4-2) — Henry canned five second-half 3-balls — who dropped their third game in a row.

East also picked up 11 points apiece from Evan Chandler and slick soph Jordan McCraw.

“If we won, we weren’t gonna crown ourselves champions and we’re not gonna cancel the rest of the season [since we lost],” Ross said. “Just gotta keep working.”

In addition to the normal ferocity that’s in play whenever these two get together — on any playing field in any season — Friday’s scrap became one of those must-have results since both sides are chasing Commonwealth frontrunner Carlisle.

Both sit two games behind the Thundering Herd in a tie for second place that features three teams since State College fell to Carlisle and also dropped two back.

“It had a lot to do with the District 3 power ratings also, although it’s early,” Smallwood said. It helped us with the power ratings also. We always want to win the league, that’s our first goal. We just gotta keep plugging away and get better every game.”

Let’s just say that Whitaker also had his arms wrapped around all the necessary permutations before those packed into Kimber Gymnasium’s crowded bleachers spent any time at the ticket window to pay their way in and escape the chill outside.

“That’s what we want to do,” Whitaker said of a Harrisburg program that shared the Commonwealth crown last season with Carlisle. “We want to be first in our division, that’s one of our first goals and that’s what we’re gonna try to do every other day.”

Ross, the erstwhile Harrisburg assistant coach now in his second season at East, pointed to another reason why his Panthers wound up on the short end.

“The 50-50 balls,” Ross admitted. “I’m not even gonna say the physicality, but the effort to go attack loose balls and rebounds. I don’t think we got pushed around per se.

“They attacked the ball better than we did. You can’t play a team like that and not be ready to rebound and win the 50-50 battle.”

Even as the second half began with Harrisburg holding a four-point lead (31-27) on its visitors, there was still plenty of see-saw action in store since every time Smallwood’s club added to its lead the determined Panthers clawed back in.

And while East was within three (40-37) with 3:19 left in the third quarter after Henry rubbed off a screen and buried the second of his five treys, the Cougars promptly ran off six straight points to close the period in a hurry and go up nine.

Zion Patterson ignited Harrisburg’s mini-spurt with a reverse layup following a drive down the left baseline, Whitaker knocked down a mid-range jumper off a kickout from Parsons and Tito Flemister pitched in with a finish at the rim.

When the Cougars were whistled for a technical foul just after the horn — and Chandler cashed in twice before the final eight minutes began — East began yet another of those valiant runs that got Ross’ Panthers so close but not close enough.

“They do a good job,” Smallwood said of East. “They’re only going to get better.”

Henry drained another trey to make it a four-point game, but Whitaker answered with a layup set up by a neat Patterson dish. Henry canned another 3-point moments later to make it a three-point game (48-45), but Flemister responded with one of his own.

Chandler knocked down three of four freebies to pull the Panthers within three yet again, but there was Whitaker hoisting a floater that fell and then another successful layup that made it 55-48 after Tony James slipped a ball across the painted area.

Harrisburg’s lead even reached 10 points (60-50) with 2:37 showing, but a combined three freebies from McCraw and Henry kept East in it. The Panthers nearly drew within four, but Chandler’s 3-ball from the left corner spun out.

“We’re gonna be OK,” Ross said. “We’re gonna keep pushing. It’s just a little bit of a rough spot right now, but there were some good things that we did tonight.”

East had its deficit down to five on Terry Danner’s hustle bucket with just under a minute to go — “He competed,” Ross said of the mobile 6-5 junior — but Whitaker knocked down three free throws to seal the result.

“I felt good in the fourth quarter,” Smallwood said. “I don’t know how many free throws [Whitaker] shot, but he was on the line a lot. And that was by design.”

A back-and-forth affair that Harrisburg led for nearly the entire 32-minute exercise finally belonged to the Cougars. Go-to guy Whitaker was clutch throughout and filled his line in the scorebook almost completely, but he was quick to share the glory.

Especially since the Cougars won their fifth straight.

“I don’t take no credit for this,” Whitaker said. “I give all the credit to my team and the coaches. My team did a great job tonight, guys stepped up and we all did our roles. That was one thing, as a team, we wanted to do. We were taught and we went over before the game to do our role and tonight guys stepped up.

“If it wasn’t Barrett, it was Parsons. If it wasn’t Parsons, it was Tito. My teammates, I love ‘em. We always step up and we always come together at the end of the day.”