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Poor fourth quarter costs Harvest Christian

The Marengo boys basketball team scored 16 fourth-quarter points and held Harvest Christian to 5 to pull out a 46-44 win in the second consolation bracket semifinal at the E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic Tournament Thursday night in Marengo.

The Lions will play Richmond Burton on Friday for third place in the consolation bracket.

"When the game got close, we lost some of our discipline and we weren't in our spots where we needed to be and Marengo, they are a well-coached team, and they took advantage of it and hurt us," said Harvest Christian coach Bryan Bradshaw.

Harvest Christian held a 39-28 advantage at the start of the final frame. The Indians went on a 9-0 run and pulled within 2 points, 39-37 at the 5:07 of the period on an inside basket by Alexander Schirmer, who led Marengo with 15 points.

Harvest (8-3) widened the lead back to 4 on a Mark Davila (8 points) layup 6 seconds later.

Nick Wascher's 3-pointer from the left wing gave Marengo (9-5) its first lead of the night, 44-42 with 1:58 left in the game. Wascher scored 9 points for the Indians, all on 3-pointers.

The Lions narrowed the lead to 1 point with 42.6 seconds left to play, 45-44 with 2 free throws by Grant Young (11 points) but that was a close as Harvest would get.

"In the fourth quarter we quit turning the ball over," said Marengo coach Nate Wright. "We played on the defensive end. They kind of spread us out a little bit. We were patient on the defensive end which allowed us to get our bearings a little bit and to set things up."

The Lions' pressure defense and fast-paced offense held the Indians in check for the first three quarters. Harvest forced 11 first-half turnovers and led 23-18 at halftime.

The frantic pace continued into the third quarter as the Lions forced Marengo to turn the ball over another 7 times.

The Indians turned the tables on Harvest in the fourth quarter, forcing the Lions to give up the ball 5 times to Marengo's one.

"That's the style of play we wanted to play for 4 quarters. We want to put pressure on you and force you to play fast and for a majority of the game we did a decent job if it," said Bradshaw. "We just didn't make enough plays in the end."

Harvest's Jack Nohava led all scorers with 16 points.

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