Fillies continue to struggle

The Harrison County Fillies continue their trend of playing well in spurts, but not well enough to seal the deal.

Photo courtesy Donald Richie/Richie Photography

Junior Kaitlin Johnson tries to wrestle the ball away from a Paris High player last Saturday in the first of two games of a Fillies-Breds double header on the Hilltop. The Fillies lost 43-34.

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Harrison County lost its fifth straight game, and 10th in their last 11, with a 53-38 decision to Pendleton County on Monday night in Falmouth.

Pendleton County went on a 10-2 run in the second quarter to take the lead for good. Charley Hatfield led Harrison County with 14 points.

On Friday night on the Hilltop, Harrison County played Paris well for 28 minutes, trailing by just three points with four minutes to play, but struggled down the stretch and lost, 43-34.

The next night, Harrison County trailed a strong St. Henry team 43-40 with three minutes left to play, before losing 54-41.

“I really believe we are getting better in a lot of areas, we just need to find some way to put 32 minutes of solid basketball together,” said HCHS head coach Jason Crisp. “Turnovers continue to be a big problem for us. We just give the other team way too many chances to score and don’t get nearly enough shots ourselves.”

Another problem Crisp and the Fillies face is finding a couple of consistent scoring threats when they do get good shots.

“I agree, when we run our offense well or when a player makes a good move and gets a good look at the basket, we need somebody to step up and make some key shots… of course every team in the state wants to have players like that, but we desperately need someone to step up and be that player for us.”

Harrison County played its Senior Night game on Saturday against St. Henry, with Hatfield and Brittany Murphy honored prior to the game.

“Charley and Brittany have been good leaders for us this year,” said Crisp after the game. “It had to be tough on them to have a new coach with a different way of doing things take over the basketball team this year, but they have handled it fine. I hope that we finish the year strong for them so that they will have fond memories of their senior year.”

The Fillies played their last regular season home game last night as 38th District foe Nicholas County came to the Hilltop. Harrison County defeated the Lady Jackets in the season opener for both teams, 40-34.

Saturday night, Harrison County goes on the road to play Scott High School in Taylor Mill. The JV game will start at 6, followed by the JV game at 7:30.

Next week, Harrison County concludes its regular season with two more road games. On Monday they play at Ft. Thomas Highlands and on Friday they wrap up the regular season at Bishop Brossart.

The Harrison County Fillies freshman team won its 38th District Tournament with a 20 point victory over host Pendleton County on Saturday, but were defeated in the first round of the 10th Region Tournament, also at Pendleton County, in a 10 point loss to St. Patrick.

“Our young kids played pretty well all year, so I think our future looks pretty good,” said Crisp. “It’s just a matter of those young players improving over the off-season and our coaching staff working to develop those players and do a better job of jump-starting our feeder system. We must get grade school girls involved and teach them the fundamentals of the game and hopefully develop in them a lot more interest in basketball.”