Men's basketball: Burnett, Gatlin pace a Harper victory

Fresh off a third straight road loss on Tuesday, the Harper College men's basketball team was looking to do something it still hadn't done this season: Defeat another junior college opponent.

Done.

On Thursday, the Hawks ended a four-game losing streak by beating Waubonsee Community College 79-58 in a nonconference matchup at the Sports and Wellness Center in Palatine.

"Tonight was the best game all year (on defense)," Harper freshman Allias Burnett said.

The Hawks (3-4) took 41-32 lead into the locker room at the half, and the advantage over Waubonsee (3-2) had swelled to 23 points with 4:49 to play.

Justin Welke has been on the job as Harper's coach for a little more than one full season, but he has a keen understanding of how important on-the-ball defense is in community college hoops.

"It's no mystery - on the junior college level, you have a lot of athletes," he said. "You have to keep the ball in front of you."

The next goal for Harper's coach was "to play a full 40 minutes, where you play every defensive possession."

Welke says there's still work to be done in that regard.

Chiefs coach Dave Heiss was less enthused about his own squad's effort.

"They thought they were just going to show up and walk away with a win," Heiss said of his team.

Harper was able to exploit an edge in transition offense, with Burnett and sophomore Marcus Gatlin as the main the beneficiaries.

Burnett finished with 18 points on 7-for-16 shooting from the field. Gatlin's 19 points were a team high. He also helped the Hawks' cause with a team-high 11 rebounds and 8 assists.

"When he flirts with a triple double, we are going to win a lot of those games," Welke said. "We will go as far as (Gatlin) takes us."

Consider Heiss impressed with Gatlin.

"Give the kid credit, he made our kids look bad, " Heiss said.