Madison ends Harper’s season
For the second straight year, the Harper College men’s basketball team was unable to get free from the WolfPack’s den.
Behind a second-half surge, No. 3 seed Madison rallied from an early 9-point second half deficit to eliminate No. 2 Harper 77-63 Wednesday evening in an NJCAA Region IV, Division III semifinal at Rock Valley College.
It marked the second consecutive year that the WolfPack ended the Hawks season doing so last year in the preliminary round at Joliet.
The Wolfpack (15-14) advances to Saturday night’s 7:30 p.m. title match against top seed Joliet (28-3), a 65-63 winner over No. 5 seed Milwaukee Tech (17-15) in the opening contest on Andy Supergan’s 16-footer with 0.5 seconds left.
The Hawks, who finished the season 23-9, trailed by as much as 6 twice in the opening half with a 23-17 deficit at the eight-minute mark, before they proceeded to close the half out on 13-2 run to take a 30-25 edge at the half. The run was keyed by 9 of Wes Wilcox’s 13 first-half points, including a pair of 3s that first tied the contest with 2:36 to go in the period followed by his second that put Harper ahead 28-25.
The lead stretched to 9 (at 36-27) at the 18:18 mark when the Wolfpack came back to take a 42-41 lead on Corey Yahnke’s rebound and putback with 13:46 to play.
After the Hawks took a 45-42 lead, Madison proceeded to go on a 15-3 tear that featured back-to-back 3s from Derrick Nillissen (10 points) that first tied the contest at 45-45 and then put them ahead for good at 48-45. An Aaron Jones layup with 7:40 to play extended the lead to 55-46.
It was during that spell the 6-foot-8 big man picked up both his third and fourth fouls. Harper could get no closer than four a couple of times, the second time with 1:02 to play on Wilcox’s 3-point play that made it 67-63.
Madison closed out the scoring with a 10-0 run that featured 4 points from both Jones and reserve guard Mike Wynn (13 points).
Jones led the WolfPack with 18 followed by Yahnke with 16. Wilcox (Lake Park) led all scorers with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Swingman Shonnon Barfield added 14 points for Harper, and Elk Grove product Brian Battaglia scored 10.