Harper comes up short against Waubonsee

It’s finals week on the campus of Harper College, and the Hawks men’s basketball team looked to make amends Thursday after failing its first test of the week on Tuesday night against Olive-Harvey.

The outcome, however, was the same as the Hawks fell 70-50 to Waubonsee Community College 70-50 in a nonconference game.

“Once we get our confidence back, we will look like the team we were at 5-2,” Harper reserve Simeon Handy said.

Kyler Market (14), Connor Miklasz (7) and Handy (7) combined for 28 points for the Hawks.

The Chiefs (8-2) took a 31-22 advantage into the half.

“I thought we really scrapped hard early,” said Harper coach Tony Amarino. “We needed to come out early (in the second half) and score.”

And that happened, as Harper scored 4 of the first 6 points of the second half.

It wasn’t enough, though, as the Hawks (5-9) continued to have trouble shooting after that.

Despite struggling from the field, Brian Battaglia (Elk Grove) was able to make a solid contribution in another way as he coralled 11 rebounds, 9 in the first half.

Amarino said the outcome might have been different if the players who are expected to score had done a better job of it.

“We are having trouble shooting” he said.

Handy, for one, is not dwelling on the rough week. He summed up the team’s recent struggles simply: “You can’t give up.”