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With Parmley out, Goreville falls short on road

BY LES WINKELER, the southern

Friday, November 30, 2007 12:55 PM CST

HARRISBURG - The Harrisburg Bulldogs easily disposed of the out-manned Goreville Blackcats 77-49 at the Harrisburg Invitational on Thursday night.

The Blackcats were playing without 6-foot-2 senior Kenton Parmley. Parmley injured his knee in Goreville's 75-71 loss to Hamilton County on Tuesday. Goreville coach Todd Tripp said Parmley underwent an MRI on Thursday, but he wasn't sure of a diagnosis.

Parmley was averaging 16 points and 7 rebounds per game.

"It showed the other night and it hurt us tonight," Tripp said.

Harrrisburg jumped out to a quick 19-8 lead in the first quarter, but Goreville appeared willing to make a game of it before the first break. Tyler Shadowens scored on a drive to the basket and Tyler Sopczak put together a conventional three-point play to trim Harrisburg's lead to 19-13.

The Bulldogs reasserted themselves in the second quarter, breaking the game wide open. Harrisburg outscored Goreville 20-6 in the period.

"We controlled the boards and I thought we defended well," said Harrisburg coach Randy Smithpeters. "That's what we really wanted to do.

"I thought our pressure worked well and I thought our groups worked well."

"They pushed us out of our offense," Tripp said. "We had some run-outs and that's about all the offense we had."

He also noted Harrisburg's dominance on the boards.

"It's game No. 2 and if we don't start checking out, we'll get killed by everybody on the boards," Tripp said.

Harrisburg opened a double digit lead early in the third quarter, but took complete command in the final two minutes of the half.

Sterling Price put Harrisburg on top 33-19 with a rebound hoop at the 1:42 mark.

Goreville turned the ball over on the inbounds play resulting in a Reid Roper 3-pointer.

After Goreville failed to score on the other end, Roper drilled another 3-pointer, stretching the Harrisburg lead to 39-19. The lead was never less than 20 after that point.

"They were back on their heels without Parmley," Smithpeters said. "I would have hated to go out there without one of our big guns."

Harrisburg had 11 players reach the scoring column, led by Price's 15. Matt Smithpeters scored 14 and Roper 11.

Drew Trovillion led Goreville with 11.

Carmi defeated Gallatin County 59-42 in the first game of the evening.

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com

351-5088