PALATINE, Ill. - The Harper College men's basketball team battled back from a 12 point halftime deficit to lead with under 13 minutes to play, but it wasn't enough as #15 Joliet Junior College recovered to defeat the Hawks 80-66 on Wednesday evening.  The defeat was Harper's third in a row.
 
Harper (6-13, 0-3 N4C) fell behind often but each time managed to make a comeback.  After the Wolves sprinted to a 12-3 lead, the Hawks battled back to cut the deficit to 14-12.  Simeon Handy (Chicago, Ill., Farragut Academy) had two baskets in the run while Connor Miklasz (Mt. Prospect, Ill., Hersey) hit the first of his four three-pointers.  The spurt was in large part due to their defense as Harper forced Joliet into seven turnovers in the opening nine minutes of the game.
 
A 16-2 run by Joliet (13-6, 2-1) shortly after widened the gap significantly and helped the Wolves head into halftime with a 40-28 advantage.
 
Emerging from the locker room with a renewed purpose, Harper began the second half on a 7-0 run.  Brian Battaglia (Elk Grove, Ill., Elk Grove) knocked down a free throw right out of the gate before Shonnon Barfield (Posen, Ill., Homewood-Flossmoor) got going.  Held scoreless in the first half, Barfield scored on back-to-back trips to cut the deficit to 40-33, and a steal and basket from Horace Grant, Jr. (Deerfield, Ill., Deerfield) prompted an immediate timeout from Joliet head coach Joe Kuhn.
 
Harrison Hines, who had a game-high 23 points, responded with a steal and layup and added one of his five three-pointers to help bump the lead back up to 11 with 15:50 left.
 
Facing the prospect of letting the game slip away, Harper responded in a big way, as a 13-0 run gave the team their only lead of the game.  The Hawks displayed some excellent ball movement as four of the five baskets during that stretch were assisted.  Grant, Jr. found Miklasz for a triple to start the run and Barfield capped it with a layup to give Harper a 51-49 lead with 12:52 remaining in the game.
 
Over the next 6 minutes and 42 seconds, the Wolves outscored the Hawks 17-4 to put the game out of reach.  Brian Byrd, who had 14 points and nine rebounds, gave Joliet their biggest lead at 76-58 with 2:55 left.
 
For the game, Harper shot 41% (24-58) from the field compared with 49% (32-65) for Joliet.  The Hawks did knock down ten three-pointers.  In addition to Miklasz's long range barrage, Barfield and Grant, Jr. knocked down two apiece.
 
Barfield scored all 15 of his points in the second half to go along with four assists while Grant, Jr. also tallied 15.  Miklasz added 14 points and four rebounds.  The Wolves' Jon Bartlett had 20 points and 13 boards to spark a 44-17 rebounding advantage for Joliet.
 
Harper returns to action on Saturday afternoon at Wilbur Wright College (6-10, 2-1).  The Rams lost their first conference game of the season tonight at Madison, 68-60.  Originally a 3:00 PM start, tipoff has been moved up to 1:00 PM.