PALATINE, Ill. – The Harper College men's basketball team was neck-and-neck with College of DuPage for nearly the entire game, but the Chaparrals had a stronger finishing kick as they pulled away late to hand Harper a 79-69 loss in the Region IV quarterfinals.
 
Harper (13-17) was even with DuPage at 61-61 with under five minutes to play, but the Chaparrals' Mark Penczak drained a 30-footer as the shot clock expired with 2:30 left and that led to a strong finish from DuPage.
 
John Lorenz (Elk Grove, Ill., Elk Grove) closed his Harper career with 17 points and Connor Miklasz (Mount Prospect, Ill., Hersey) also played well in his final game as a Hawk with 16 points.  Garett Gatz (Elk Grove Village, Ill., Conant) added 11 points and Charles Wright (Cheyenne, Wyo., Cheyenne East) scored ten points.
 
The Hawks were up six points early by the Chaparrals quickly rallied to tie the game at 13-13 with 9:26 to play in the opening half.  Miklasz set up both Rose and Gatz for buckets before Gatz drained a 3-pointer for a 22-17 lead with 6:30 left in the first.  The teams traded buckets to go into halftime tied at 33-33.