Madison’s inside strength too much for Harper

The Harper College men’s basketball team was looking to run its North Central Community College Conference record over .500 for the first time this season in Tuesday night’s conference home opener at the Sports and Wellness Center in Palatine against Madison College.

It turns out they’ll need a couple more conference wins to go above .500 as the Wolfpack (7-10 overall, 2-3 N4C) defeated the Hawks 78-70.

With 6-foot-8 freshman forward Wes Wilcox sitting out the contest for personal reasons, the inside combination of 6-8 center Garrett Borgrud (10 points) and 6-6 backup Corey Yanke (20 points) was too much for the Hawks (15-5, 2-3).

“When Wes doesn’t play, we don’t look good,” said Harper coach Tony Amarino.

Brian Battaglia (Elk Grove) was called upon to fill the void left by Wilcox’s absence.

“Brian Battaglia had a great game because of the effort he gave,” Amarino said of the 6-2 guard who was forced to play in the post. “We couldn’t match up with them inside.”

Madison started the game by scoring 11 of the first 17 points.

“They were on fire,” Amarino said of the Wolfpack’s hot shooting to open the game. “We took what I call a lot of questionable shots.”

With the guard combination of Garett Gatz (Conant), Kemill Long (Hoffman Estates) and Fred Dover (Conant) struggling from the field, Amarino turned to Perrish Bell (Schaumburg) for a spark. He responded by leading an improved defensive effort, but was plagued by foul trouble for most of the game. Bell fouled out with less than a minute remaining in the game, having scored a team-high 15 points, including 3 3-pointers.

Harper finished the game on a 9-2 run, but it was too little, too late for the Hawks.