CARLISLE - Jaydon Smith has been on fire this week and Friday that benefited the short-handed Carlisle Thundering Herd in their 69-60 Mid-Penn Commonwealth win against Harrisburg.
Smith has had to step up with senior guard Dylan Young out with an arm injury, and after delivering 30 points in Wednesday’s win over Gettysburg, the 6-foot-4 sophomore guard went for 25 for the Thundering Herd (5-11) in the win over the Cougars (4-14).
“Having Dylan out is a big loss, but it’s always next man up for us,” Smith said. “We miss him, but people stepped up today and it showed. I’m always ready to step up when anybody needs me.”
Carlisle came out strong off the tip with baskets from Smith and Jeremiah Snyder to take an early 19-7 lead at the end of the first. And the Herd continued to display their hard-nosed style of play throughout the second,this time with 5 points from Cam Lyons and a pair of 3-pointers from Julian Christopher to extend the lead to 38-21 heading into halftime.
But Harrisburg wasn’t going to give up easily.
The Cougars came out of the half starting to press and fed the hot hand in Janye Stanley. Stanley’s 11 third-quarter points closed the gap, but the Herd was able to extend tis lead t0 53-44 with baskets from Parker Smith to end the third.
It was a close fourth as Harrisburg was in hurry-up mode while Carlisle was trying to hold on to the lead. The Cougars were able to get baskets from Stanley, Simeon Franklin and Ja’Reese Balkcom to cut the lead to 7 midway through, but the Herd’s offensive attack was too much as Smith calmly sank free throws to close out the game.
THE STARS
Smith led the Herd with a game-high 25 points.
Christopher finished with 13 points which included three 3′s.
Parker Smith finished with 9 points, Snyder finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds, and Nick Stiltner finished with 5 rebounds and 6 blocks.
Stanley finished with 24 points which included two 3′s for the Cougars.
GAME DECIDING MOMENT
Harrisburg was able to close Carlisle’s lead to 63-52 midway through the fourth quarter as their press was a difference maker forcing the Herd into turnovers.
Harrisburg took a timeout at the 2:46 mark to adjust and Carlisle was able to calm down coming out of the timeout. The Cougars, who were still pressing, started to send double-teams as the Herd played stall ball, but it didn’t affect Smith.
The sophomore guard would close out the game sinking six free throws and the Cougars couldn’t recover.
THEY SAID IT
“I’m starting to gain my confidence back in myself, and it’s portraying on the court. I’m also getting my teammates involved by doing it and just starting to let the game come to me.” - Jaydon Smith on his individual performance.
“I feel as though I could do better on the offensive end, but the defensive end we did pretty well as a team today. Grabbing rebounds and locking up their best player on defense, and at the end of the day we came out with a dub.” - Jeremiah Snyder on his defensive performance.
“In my tenure, it’s rare that we beat Harrisburg twice in a year,” Coach Andre Anderson said. “Let alone once. Those guys have had our number and it meant everything to these guys to come out and get a W tonight. They’re playing hard, they’re locked in now and we were healthy coming into the game. We lost Dylan, but guys went out and stepped up. And have kept the mindset that we’re going to stick together, and keep doing what we’re doing to make things happen. So were going to carry off those two wins and keep playing good basketball, playing tough right now.” - Carlisle coach Andre Anderson on his team’s performance.
STATS
Carlisle (5-11): 19 - 19 - 15 - 16 — 69
Harrisburg (4-14): 7 - 14 - 23 - 16 — 60
THUNDERING HERD (69): Jaydon Smith 25, Parker Smith 13, Parker Smith 9, Jeremiah Snyder 8, Cam Lyons 7, Spencer Griffie 4, Nick Stiltner 3
COUGARS (60): Janye Stanley 24, Simeon Franklin 9, Karl Singleton 8, Shawn Lee 6, Yehseir Holmes 5, Ja’Reese Balkcom 5, Loyal Riley 3
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