Huskies outlast Bulldogs 70-50

Alex Topor, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
·3 min read

Jan. 14—The Bulldogs started hot, but couldn't keep up with the Huskies on Friday night at Meadville Area Senior High School's House of Thrills.

Tied with eight minutes left to play, Harbor Creek went on an 8-0 run. The Huskies outscored the 'Dogs 27-7 in the fourth quarter en route to a 70-50 Region 7 win.

"Our guys played a lot of minutes and guys got tired," Meadville head coach Mark McElhinney said. "They were battling those bigs inside and then couldn't get to the close outs in the corners."

Limiting Harbor Creek's inside scoring was a defensive goal entering the game. The Huskies are anchored at center by 6-foot 5-inch Nick Krahe. Krahe is committed to play football at West Virginia University in the fall and was a horse on the boards. At forward is 6-feet 7-inch Braylen Wilson, also a rebounding machine.

Meadville ran a 2-3 zone throughout the game. It was effective in the first half and helped Meadville earn a 13-8 lead after the first quarter.

"They're well coached. They're very deliberate and they're going to try to get their offense through the post," McElhinney said. "We had to take that away. We did a pretty good job of that while we had our legs with us."

Also helping Meadville get out to a lead was Khalon Simmons. Simmons had six points in the first quarter and erupted for 13 in the second quarter. The senior led the 'Dogs to a 29-21 lead at halftime with 19 points.

In the second half, Harbor Creek chipped away at the lead. Huskies's Brady Rzodiewicz made four 3-pointers in the quarter. A Wilson and-one in the final seconds made it a tie at 45 after three quarters.

Once the Huskies started to make 3-pointers in the corners it opened up the rest of the floor for their bigs.

"We allowed their guys to get pretty hot in both corners," McElhinney said. "The kids worked hard all night. We just were a little shorthanded and got tired down the stretch, but for three quarters we battled pretty hard."

Rzodiewicz paced Harbor Creek with 20 points. JT Delsandro added 15. Krahe scored 12 points and tallied 13 rebounds while Wilson scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Simmons ended with 24 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Burchard scored 16 points and added four steals.

"We need that third guy," McElhinney said. "Getting Lucas Luteran back as our third option will be big for us hopefully next week."

Meadville fell to 4-8 overall and 2-1 in region play. The road for the Bulldogs doesn't get any easier as they host Cathedral Prep on Tuesday.

McElhinney saw good things out of his team and is excited for Tuesday's challenge and the future of the team this season.

"It's fun — the challenge of a season like this where you have really good kids. We're shorthanded right now, but they're going to grow throughout the season," McElhinney said. "There's some good players here and we saw tonight we can battle. We just need to get a little bit deeper and be able to close out games."

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Harbor Creek (70)

Rzodkiewicz 6 2-2 20, Delsandro 5 2-2 15, Krahe 4 5-12 12, Wilson 5 1-6 11, D. Chwatek 1 4-4 6, T. Chwatek 2 0-0 6.

Totals 23 16-26 70.

Meadville (50)

Simmons 10 2-4 24, Burchard 5 3-4 16, Ball 3 0-0 6, Burnett 2 0-0 4.

Totals 20 6-8 50.

Harbor Creek;8;13;22;27;—;70

Meadville;13;16;14;7;—;50

3-point goals: Harbor Creek — Rzodkiewicz 6, Delsandro 3, T. Chwatek 2; Meadville — Burchard 3, Simmons 2.

Records: Harbor Creek 8-5, 2-1 Region 7; Meadville 4-8, 2-1 Region 7.

Alex Topor can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at atopor@meadvilletribune.com.