Photo by Andrew Grimm Harrison Central’s Brady Hyre lofts up a jumper during the Huskies’ home game Monday against Steubenville Catholic.

CADIZ — It was a tale of two halves for the Harrison Central boys basketball team Monday.

The Huskies started Monday’s game struggling offensively, getting out-rebounded and trailing on the scoreboard at halftime.

In the second half, however, Harrison Central got its two big guys — Bryson Kamarec and Brady Hyre — going and started to make shots, ultimately battling back for a 49-38 victory over visiting Catholic Central.

The Huskies (6-14) shot just 24 percent in the first half but doubled that in the second half, shooting 48 percent after halftime. After being held to 15 points in the entire first half, Harrison Central matched that total in the third and netted 19 in the fourth quarter.

“I think the biggest thing is, in the second half, we started to move the ball a little better,” Huskies head coach Nick Yourkovich said. “The first half we were having a lot of one-pass, two-pass possessions. We were getting some good shots, but we didn’t make the defense work at all. In the second half we made the defense work and worked the ball inside more.

“We were a lot more patient offensively in the second half.

After shooting 0 of 9 from the field in the opening half and being held to just two points, Kamarec netted 18 in the second half for a 20-point night, hitting two 3s after halftime and going 10 of 11 from the foul line, 8 of 9 in the fourth quarter. He also added eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Hyre was carrying the load in the first half, scoring eight of his game-high 22 before the break, but picked it up even more as Kamarec got going, too, netting 14 after halftime. He also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and had two steals and an assist.

“Brady Hyre had probably his best offensive game of the year,” Yourkovich said. “When Brady got going, Bryson got going, too, and I think that sort of collapsed the defense. They started to have to pay attention to Brady and Bryson got loose for a couple. He’s been struggling shooting a little bit lately so hopefully that gets him going for us. He’s been taking good shots, they just haven’t been falling. Luckily for us, tonight they did in the second half.”

Neither side shot the ball well as the first half was a defensive battle, Catholic Central (9-12) leading 10-6 after one quarter and 17-15 at halftime.

Central opened their lead to as many as five early in the third quarter, but the Huskies went on the charge with a 15-4 run that spanned into the fourth quarter and made it a 40-31 lead for the hosts.

The Crusaders, though, did not go away, as they rattled off a 7-0 run to pull back within two, but the Huskies responded with the last nine points of the game to close things out.

“We’ve been in at least 12 two-score games, maybe more than that even. It always seems like it’s a one or two possession game in the fourth quarter this year so our guys are getting used to those situations,” Yourkovich said. “They responded well to put this one away.”

Central finished shooting 32.6 percent overall and went just 1 of 13 from beyond the arc. After holding the advantage off the glass in the first half, the final margin went to the Huskies, 29-25.

“They got going in the second half and offensively, our shot selection needed to be better,” Central head coach Don Ogden said. “We hit some shots in the first half, but you still have to continue to run the offense and look for the best shot and I don’t think we did that. Our rebounding kind of went downhill in the second half and some of our baseline defense, we lost. They were able to drive and dump off a couple times and I think that contributed to it.

“They handled our pressure well and scored off of it a couple times. It was just one of those nights.”

The Crusaders were led by 19 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks, an assist and a steal from Rahim Mitchell. Luke Bryan came off the bench with eight points and two steals.

UP NEXT

Catholic Central: Travels to Bellaire for its regular season finale on Thursday.

Harrison Central: Has two regular season games left, the first of which is at Malvern tonight.