Crane overcame its first-half jitters and gave Harrisburg a case of the turnover bug to return to the Class 2 boys’ state title game for the second time in program history.
The Pirates outscored Harrisburg by 12 (29-17) in the second half of Thursday night’s Class 2 boys’ semifinal, earning a 59-51 victory. Junior forward Colton Elder scored a team-high 14 and senior forward Deven White added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Pirates.
Crane trailed by only four at halftime against Harrisburg, but was left feeling it had not yet played its best basketball.
“Our jitters disappeared,” Crane coach Craig Campbell said about his team’s second-half surge. Crane spotted Harrisburg an early 9-2 lead. “Everybody came out on the floor at the beginning of the game and was jittery. I’ll be honest, I was jittery on the sideline.”
Added Pirates senior Dalton Hayes: “We just settled down and played our game. At first, we were getting rushed and trying to do too much. We were trying to play to (Harrisburg’s) pace and do what they wanted to do, instead of slowing down and playing our game.”
Taylor Bottomley’s layup with 2:04 remaining in the third quarter gave Harrisburg a 41-37 lead, before Crane responded with a game-swinging run.
The Pirates scored 14 of the game’s next 16 points. By the time Harrisburg made its first basket of the fourth quarter – on a Brendan Gray 3-pointer with 3:22 remaining – the Pirates still led 51-46.
Crane struggled with free throw shooting for much of the night – the Pirates were only 15-for-26 from the charity stripe overall – but converted enough the down the stretch (six of nine attempts) to seal the victory.
Since losing 58-55 to Marionville in the title game of the Crane Tournament in late January and dropping to 9-9 overall, Crane has won 11 of its last 12 games.
Crane also got a boost from its defense, as the Pirates forced Harrisburg into 20 turnovers.
“Our spacing was bad against their press and we really just needed to take our time, but we started rushing a little bit and once that happens, things can go south pretty quickly,” Harrisburg coach Steve Combs, who doubles as the school’s principal. “Once they got the lead on us, we had to force the issue a little bit. Crane did a nice job of getting into the passing lanes, bothering our dribblers and shooters.”
Crane forced Harrisburg’s primary ball-handlers – Gray and Cody Karl – into six turnovers apiece. The Pirates held junior guard Cade Combs to two points and five rebounds, well below his season averages of 20 and eight, respectively.
“A few games before districts, we all kind of decided, ‘We’re going to play for each other instead of playing for ourselves,’” Campbell said. “When that happened, our defense picked up. It didn’t matter what defense we were running – man, zone, press – it was just clicking.”
Wyatt Vaught added 10 points for Crane, which improved to 19-10 overall. He came up with a key steal late in the game that led to a Hayes layup, which gave Crane a 54-48 lead.
Crane out-rebounded Harrisburg 33-29 and had 16 more free throw attempts than the Bulldogs, who were 7-for-10 overall at the line.
White and Elder played a large role for Crane around the basket. Combined, the duo shot 10-for-13 from the field.
“We were able to get the ball inside against their zone and our post guys Deven and Colton made some good things happen,” Campbell said.
Harrisburg dropped to 22-9 overall, while Crane improved to 20-10. Gray led the Bulldogs with 24 points and Karl scored 14.
Crane meets Oran (22-8 overall) at 6:20 p.m. Saturday in the Class 2 state title game at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. Oran defeated Hartville 55-52 in the quarterfinals last Saturday and pulled out a down-to-the-wire 64-59 win over Sacred Heart on Thursday.
The Pirates won a state championship in 2011 – when the current senior class was in 6th grade – and took 3rd place in 2015.
“Being a senior, you kind of want it a little bit more and it means more,” White said. “You look back on (two years ago), I’m not nearly as nervous as I was the first time.”
Crane 59, Harrisburg 51
Crane 12 18 12 17 — 59
Harrisburg 12 22 9 8 — 51
Crane – Colton Elder 14, Wyatt Vaught 12, Deven White 10, Tyler Campbell 9, Dalton Hayes 6, Braydon Cook 5, Brent Williams 3
Harrisburg – Brendan Gray 24, Cody Karl 14, Kolton James 5, Taylor Bottomley 4, Cade Combs 2, Conner McBride 2
