Fishers, Haralson barrel by Bloomington North at Forum Tipoff Classic
INDIANAPOLIS — Fishers' Jalen Haralson had a gleam in his eye Saturday afternoon in the Forum Tip-off Classic at Southport.
It sparkled even more if he came down and saw anyone on Bloomington North's roster other than senior JaQualon Roberts between him and the basket, he was downhill faster than Lindsey Vonn. The precocious 6-foot-7 sophomore certainly carried himself like one of the state's best players, torching the Cougars for 35 points in a 79-60 rout.
Fishers was 3-3 coming in, but has faced some of the state's best, falling only to No. 2 Ben Davis (which beat No. 1 Cathedral by 12 in the shootout finale), No. 8 Carmel and No. 11 Noblesville (which just beat Carmel). Haralson, off the dribble or off the jumper, couldn't be stopped, by JQ or anyone else, going 13-of-19 with three 3s and a 6-of-7 night at the line.
"Just a Division I player, maybe even a future pro," North coach Jason Speer said. "He's got balance and strength to go along with a high basketball IQ and good basketball skill.
"From what I've seen, no obvious weakness in his game, especially at our level as a sophomore. Not that I've been doing it for 50 years, but he's as good as I've seen."
Forum Tipoff Classic: Ben Davis tops Cathedral; Jalen Haralson, Markus Burton shine
For North (3-2), it was another test, playing a high profile game right after beating Mooresville while Fishers was resting up.
"Playing a hard fought game on Friday and then the quick turnaround, less that 24 hours to get ready for a team like that, it was a tall task," Speer said. "But we fought the entire time. We had opportunities, we just didn't cash in enough of those offensive opportunities.
"Defensively, we weren't stingy enough."
Next Friday and Saturday, the combo is Southport and a trip to Franklin. Still, the Cougars know going through weekends like this prep them for what's ahead if they make another deep postseason run.
More:Bloomington South takes Southport to the wire
"It's not fair, but it's certainly a challenge," Speer said. "You have to win on a Friday and Saturday night in tournament play. When you get to regional, you have to be able to win two in one day. So that's kind of the goal with what it is we want to do to challenge us so that when we do get to the tournament, when we get into a tough Conference Indiana game, we know what that feels like.
"Probably not a fair fight tonight, with them not playing and us playing (Friday), but we don't need to learn lessons by losing. But once it does happen, I think we'll be able to look back at this and say we learned something tonight."
Tigers pounce
It didn't feel so good from the start as Fishers and Haralson didn't waste any time in taking control, using three 3s to to go up 20-11 in the first quarter.
North's defense gave up way to many back-door cuts for easy scores and failed to get back in transition several times as well. Down 32-18, the Cougars' offense also went dry, not recording a field goal in the last 5:10 of the first half.
It was 36-22 at the break as Haralson hit a runner to beat the horn for his 18th point.
With Roberts 0-for-5 from the floor, point guard Dawan Daniels was keeping North alive with seven points and the senior fired out of the gates in the third, getting to the line, hitting a jumper and then stealing the inbounds pass to earn two more at the line.
All that cut the deficit to 36-27 in just 54 seconds.
"Dawan is all heart," Speer said. "He plays extremely hard. Took some opportunities that he had with scoring and also distributing it a little bit. So very happy with Dawan's output."
But the Tigers shook that off with an astonishing 14-0 run, working a 3/4 court trap to speed up the game and make the Cougars look completely out of sorts, to build a 50-27 advantage in just three minutes. From there, the lead never fell below 17.
"We had enough opportunities in the paint and beyond the 3-point line to make it close," Speer said. "We were able to break it down to single digits there to start the second half, then they go on another run."
Fishers commits 20 fouls, giving North free throw chances
Fishers ran in 12 players in the first half, nine seeing most of the minutes, and never missed a beat. The Tigers still ended up shooting 61% (32-of-52) and 9-of-11 at the line. They owned the glass by a 38-17 margin. About the only blemish were 20 fouls that gave the Cougars' 23 free throw opportunities.
Down 20 or more is someplace North has not found itself since the 2021 sectional final against Bloomington South, but Speer saw his team fight through it as well as it could.
Early lead, rebounds:Bloomington North girls win big over Owen Valley
"We need to get more connected on offense, we need to get more connected on defense," Speer said. "But that's why we have a season."
Roberts finished with 19 points (going 9-of-12 at the line) with 15 coming in the second half. His first five points came on free throws before he knocked down a 3 with 2:31 left in the third. Daniels had 16 points, with Gavin Reed and Connor O'Guinn adding six each. North shot 40% and was just 6-of-21 on 3s.
"Very deep bench that they had, very fresh legs," Speer said. "We had to protect the paint a little bit better, get some more deflections, rebound a little bit better. So all in all, good effort just not good enough to beat a team like that in the middle of December.
"Hopefully, we'll see them again. We're going to work toward that as our goal."
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Fishers, Haralson barrel by Bloomington North at Forum Tipoff Classic
