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Harvest Christian wins big in regional opener

Sacre bleu!

Harvest Christian Academy was tres magnifique in a 65-28 victory over Lycee Francais de Chicago in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal at Westminster Christian Tuesday.

The athletically superior Lions opened the game in a smothering full-court press and the rout was on.

No. 3 Harvest Christian Academy (18-12) created 10 first-quarter turnovers and capitalized on most every one in building a 23-3 lead.

The Lions settled into a 2-3 zone in the second quarter against the 14th-seeded Flames (5-20), whose lineup was depleted partly due to upcoming testing, according to coach Jerome Saint-Omer.

Lycee Francais played one senior, one junior, three sophomores and two freshmen. None had much luck against the Harvest Christian zone. The Flames committed 10 more second-quarter turnovers and made no field goals. The Lions led 55-3 at halftime.

"It's easy when it's not a super-competitive game to relax a little bit, but I didn't think our kids did that," Harvest Christian Academy coach Bryan Bradshaw said. "I was real proud of that. I saw it as a confidence builder."

Knowing his team needs to win three games in four days to win the regional, Bradshaw sat his starters at halftime and played his bench only in the second half.

The Lions could think about moving on while backups like Parker Jones and Jakob Johnson buried third-quarter 3-pointers. They advance to a regional semifinal against No. 5 North Shore Country Day (12-12) on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Raiders defeated No. 11 Westminster Christian 67-37 in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader.

Junior Matt Ellett missed two months of the season with a broken elbow, but he was in top form in the playoff opener. The guard led Harvest Christian with 21 points and 5 steals. He said the lopsided win will not dull the Lions' competitive edge.

"I think our coach is on top of that," Ellett said. "We know we're playing hard and we've got our heads straight going into these next two games. We've got some big games coming up and I think we're going to be ready. We're excited."

Eleven Lions scored. Freshman Benjamin Lothery contributed 8 points. Senior guard Nate Boldog and junior forward George Nohava each finished with 6 points.

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