Harrison lifts Co-Lin men
Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, January 23, 2013
WESSON – Tim Harrison made a baseline spin move for a basket and it gave the Co-Lin Wolfpack a 77-76 Tuesday night lead with 11 seconds left in the game. That proved to be the margin of victory as the East Central Warriors missed a last-second, off-balance 3-point field goal attempt by Akeem Toppin.
It was Co-Lin’s first South Division win of the season. The Wolves improved their record to 3-12 overall and 1-3 in the South. East Central fell to 1-14 and 1-3).
“It was a spin move and it felt real good,” said Harrison, a 6-foot-2 sophomore from Louisville, Ky. He came off the bench to lead Co-Lin with 20 points, 4 assists and 4 steals.
“We played together as a team,” said Harrison. “Ultimately, we got it done.”
Co-Lin hustled and won the hard way, shooting a cold 36 percent from the field and making just 2-of-11 from 3-point range.
Coach Dennis Sims was relieved to see his team win an ugly game instead of being on the losing side. “We finally made a play and (Warriors) didn’t.
“Tim Harrison made a big play for us. He was our leading scorer coming off the bench.”
Sims saw his bench outscore EC’s 409-14. Starting guard Jay Case scored 13 points and backup center Fred Fairman netted 10, plus 5 rebounds. Terrance James collected 6 boards.
“We got in foul trouble and we made some bone-head mistakes in the first half,” Sims recalled. “We did a better job getting bumps on layups.”
The Warriors, coached by Maurice Bowie, led by as much as 8 points, 62-54, with 10:29 left in the game. Co-Lin claimed its first lead at 69-68 on a short jumper by Chris Steverson with 3:44 showing.
Bowie kept his team fresh by substituting 5 players at a time. They shot 45 percent from the field.
The Warriors got a game-high 21 points from Chris Rhoney, a 6-1 freshman guard from Meridian (West Lauderdale). Bobby Wrench, a 6-5 forward from Columbus, added 15 points.