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The Harrisburg girls have run the table so far in Class A basketball leading the Tigers to a share of the No. 1 ranking this week. At 15-1 with their only loss to double-A O'Gorman, the town of Harrisburg could have it's first state tournament girls basketball team ever. But with past experiences, you won't hear the Tigers talk much about it.
Two straight years of reaching the region finals, two straight losses for the Harrisburg girls. It's easy to see that the team is getting a bit sick of just missing out.
"It's been like two years now and you always want to get past that. It just stinks falling just a little short. It's kind of a pain, it hurts," senior forward Morgan Krier said.
That pain has turned into motivation with the Tigers putting in a lot of time in the off-season to get better and that work is showing on the court. While the goal of every team is to win a state title, Harrisburg tends to go out of its way to stay in the present.
"I know it sounds cheesy but it's something that we talk about a lot. Don't miss a day, don't miss a moment. We talk a lot about enjoying the journey not just focusing on the destination and I think our girls have done a very good job of that just considering some of the attention they're starting to get," head coach Marcus Leloux said.
The Tigers have been ranked second since December 17th averaging around 68 points per game while a stingy defense has held opponents to an average of 40 a night. Hailey Halling leads the team in scoring (14 ppg) but seniors Brittany Blakney and Morgan Krier have been the group's guides.
"It's been a lot of fun. The past three years have been really fun too but this year we just want it and we've been so close the past couple years. This is what we want to do. So we're going to go out and get after it," senior guard Brittany Blakney said.
"We know where we want to go and we know what we need to do to get there. We don't want to come up short again. We want to be there," Krier said.
