The Harrisburg boys didn’t show much rust after only five days of practice for most of the starting five on Monday as the top-seeded Bulldogs cruised past eight-seeded Marceline 68-28 in the opening round of the Glasgow Tournament. 

Three of the Bulldogs’ five starters were still playing football until November 22. That didn’t stop seniors Trace Combs from scoring a game-high 22 points and Bryce Ott adding 12 with four 3-point buckets. Ike DeMuth added nine points, all from the arc, in his season debut, along with senior Sam Katsaros with nine points.

Ten Bulldogs entered the scorebook as coach Kyle Fisher emptied his bench in the second half.

“I thought the biggest thing was we played really hard and competed really hard,” Fisher said. “There’s obviously still a lot of things we can clean up on both sides of the floor. But for having five practices and a shoot around, I thought our guys did a really good job of just competing.”

Despite having only been on the hardwood a week, Harrisburg’s relentless style of defense is ingrained in those players after years in the system. Marceline was able to keep relative pace in the first quarter, trailing 19-8 after the opening period. But Harrisburg’s defense held the Tigers scoreless for more than nine minutes from the end of the first quarter to the final 65 seconds of the second to pull away 40-12 at the break.

“You want to come out there and take care of business,” said Fisher. “Credit to Marceline. They came out and hung with us for a little bit there early. Fortunately for us, our pressure got to them, and we were able to create some easy shots off our defense. I thought more than anything, it was just about our guys playing really hard and competing and sharing the ball.”

The Bulldogs now hope for another crack at the tournament title after falling to New Franklin last year. They advance to the championship side of the bracket to face fifth-seeded Slater, which overcame fourth-seeded Glasgow in Monday’s opener. The two athletic defenses will square off at 6 p.m. tonight (Wednesday). The winner will advance to the championship game at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.