PALATINE, Ill. – In danger of letting seven point second half lead slip away, the Harper College men's basketball team did what they had done all night against College of DuPage: dug in and played defense.  Louis Erkins (Schaumburg, Ill., Glenbard South) came up with two huge stops on DuPage's Yermiah Crutcher in the games final 20 seconds to preserve a 63-61 Hawk victory.
 
Nursing a 61-60 lead with 18 seconds to play, , Erkins harassed Crutcher into a difficult shot, and Shonnon Barfield (Posen, Ill., Homewood-Flossmoor) got the rebound.  Barfield, who led the Hawks with 20 points, sank a pair to extend the lead to three.
 
On the next possession, Harper (7-16, 1-6 N4C) elected to foul DuPage (9-13, 0-7) instead of giving them a chance to tie the game up with a three-pointer.  Barfield sent Mark Penczak to the line with four seconds left, and he converted the first and missed the second intentionally. The Chaparrals got the ball back when the rebound was deflected out of bounds off of a Hawk player. 
 
On the inbounds play, Crutcher got the ball at the elbow and spun towards the lane but missed the potential game-tying shot as the buzzer sounded, thanks to some tight defense by Erkins.
 
The Hawks took control in the second half thanks to a 9-0 run spanning 3:32.  After Jake Martin, who had 15 points and eight rebounds, scored to give the Chaparrals a 52-50 lead with 7:38 left, Harper didn't allow a point for nearly five minutes.  John Lorenz (Elk Grove Village, Ill., Elk Grove) started the run with two free throws before Jordan Mack (Hillside, Ill., St. Joseph) hit a difficult foul line jumper.  Connor Miklasz (Mt. Prospect, Ill., Hersey) added three free throws when he got fouled on a three-pointer before Simeon Handy (Chicago, Ill., Farragut Academy) capped the spurt with a jumper of his own to give Harper their biggest lead at 59-52.
 
When the Chaparrals tied it at 31-31 early on in the second half, Barfield took over, scoring 12 of the Hawks' next 17 points to put them ahead 48-42 with 11:05 left in the game.  The swingman got to the basket seemingly at will and was able to make DuPage pay for fouling him, knocking down his final seven free throws after missing his first.
 
Harper held DuPage to just 38% shooting as Mack protected the paint all night long.  The second-year player had four blocks in addition to pulling down 11 rebounds.  Handy also recorded 11 rebounds, aiding a 36-35 rebounding edge for the Hawks.
 
Miklasz finished with 12 points and made 5 of 6 from the line, part of a 14 of 16 performance from the charity stripe for the Hawks.  Mack posted a double-double with 10 points and the aforementioned 11 rebounds, while Lorenz chipped in 11 points.  Xavier Biles led DuPage with 17 points.
 
Harper returns to action on Saturday in the second game of their current three-game homestand, taking on #6 Triton College (20-3, 7-0).  Originally a 7:00 PM scheduled start, tipoff has been moved up to 5:00 PM.

N4C Standings

1.	Triton	7-0	20-3
2.	Milwaukee	6-1	17-6
3.	Joliet	4-3	15-7
4.	Rock Valley	4-3	14-9
5.	Madison	3-4	6-15
6.	Wright	3-4	8-13
7.	HARPER	1-6	7-16
8.	DuPage	0-7	9-14