Down 8 at halftime, Harris sparks Scott with 35 points to lift Bulldogs past Bowsher 72-66

Scott’s Chris Harris, left, and Chris Darrington, top, battle Bowsher’s Nate Allen for a loose ball. Harris finished with 35 points.

THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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Scott’s Chris Darrington, right, blocks a shot by Bowsher’s Mark Washington. Darrington scored 17 points. Washington had seven.

Scott showed plenty of hospitality during the second quarter of Friday night’s City League contest with 10th-ranked Bowsher.

The Bulldogs allowed for a stoppage of play when Rebels guard Nate Allen scored the 1,000th point of his career. He was given the basketball and posed for photos with teammates as well as Toledo Public Schools superintendent Romules Durant.

That brief celebration on Scott’s home court didn’t go over well with the Bulldogs as they watched from their bench, trailing by seven following Allen’s three-point play with 4 minutes, 27 seconds left in the half.

“I’m not going to lie, we were a little envious because we didn’t score our 1,000th,” Scott senior guard Chris Harris said. “That’s when we knew we had to attack. I told my boys, I want that, so we were coming.”

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Harris and the rest of the Bulldogs ended the warm welcome and rallied late to knock off the Rebels 72-66.

Harris led the way by pouring in a game-high 35 points, including 23 in the second half when Scott outscored Bowsher 49-35 to halt the Rebels’ 12-game win streak.

“Being a senior leader, I had to hype my boys up and keep them in the game,” said Harris, who also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. “When we went into the locker room at halftime, I just told them to calm down.

“They were a little timid out there, but once the game got rolling they were good.”

Chris Darrington pumped in 17 points and grabbed seven boards for Scott (9-4, 4-1 CL), which trailed by as much as 11 in the first half before going into the locker room down 31-23.

“I’m glad we won, but I’m sick to my stomach over how many offensive rebounds we gave up tonight,” Scott coach Chris Dames said. “But I’m proud of them because they could have folded. They’re young, and it was a great crowd, and they hung in there.”

Allen finished with a team-high 21 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead Bowsher (12-2, 5-1 CL). Dajuan King scored 16 points and collected six boards while Cameron White added 12 21 points. Mark Washington added seven points and 10 rebounds before fouling out late.

Scott’s Chris Harris, left, and Chris Darrington, top, battle Bowsher’s Nate Allen for a loose ball. Harris finished with 35 points.

The Bulldogs, winners of five straight, erased the haltime deficit early in the third quarter.

“Scott played a great second half,” Bowsher coach Joe Guerrero said. “They attacked the basket and did a lot of good things. We didn’t play how we normally play at the end games. I was disappointed in what we did at the end of the game, but that’s my fault. We have to do a better job of finishing games.”

Scott put together a 15-5 run in the third and led 38-36 when Harris converted a three-point play. Bowsher regained the lead and led 51-47 going into the fourth.

Harris came through in the fourth quarter with 15 points, which matched the Rebels’ total for the quarter. He was 8 for 11 from the foul line late.

“That was Chris Harris to me,” Dames said. “I don’t even know how many points he had in the game. I told him at the half, ‘We’re down eight, and we’re shooting the ball terribly, and we’re doing everything we said we shouldn’t do, and we’re still in this game.’ ”

The Rebels responded well to the halftime speech.

Allen missed his first five shots of the game. Not exactly the kind of start he hoped for on his way to reaching 1,000 points.

His early shooting woes led to Guerrero sitting him down early in the second quarter. Observing from the bench seemed to be the cure. When he returned to the court, he scored 12 points in the second quarter to help the Rebels take an eight-point advantage into halftime.

Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade.com, 419-724-6302 or on Twitter @DemmonsBlade.