Box Score PALATINE, IL-  The Harper College men's basketball team was not able to erase a 4-point halftime deficit in their second meeting against the Rock Valley College Golden Eagles in an 85-72 loss on Wednesday.

After essentially trading baskets for the first 4 minutes, the Hawks were able to build leads of 4 and 3 points halfway into the first half.  An offensive put back by Jesse Young followed up by a Tony Ziccardi three pointer from the corner put the Hawks up 3 with 9:10 to go in the half.  After RVC tied the game at 19, Young gave the Hawks another slim lead with a layup.  However, the Golden Eagles would go on an extended run and were able to build a 35-25 lead with 2:46 left in the first half.  After that point, the Hawks put together a 7-1 run thanks to a block by Michael Petrella which led to a Corin Daniel 15 foot jumper and was capped off with a Young three pointer to put the Hawks down 36-32 at halftime.  At the half, the Hawks were shooting a scorching 52% from the field to RVC's 40%.  However, the Golden Eagles were able to get off 11 more shots thanks to 8 offensive rebounds and 8 Hawk turnovers creating the four point deficit.

Unfortunately, the second half took away from the inspired first half by the Hawks as RVC built up a quick 11 point lead 5 minutes in.  Harper was only able to get the lead down to single digits one more time throughout the remainder of the game and actually found themselves down by as many as 25 with 5 minutes to go in the game.  Harper was able to pick up the pace in the last bit of the game and lost by 13 points, 85-72.

For the game, the Hawks shot a solid 48% but a strong shooting second half from the Golden Eagles put them at 51%, including an incredible 64% in the second half.  Despite only committing 13 turnovers, the Hawks were outshot by the Golden Eagles 71-60, thanks to 12 RVC offensive rebounds.  Jesse Young was able to pick up another double-double with game-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds.  Joe Gatziolis and Corin Daniel contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively, while Christian Rettig added an efficient 10 points in 23 minutes.

With the loss, the Hawks fall to 3-21 overall and 1-8 in conference play.  The Hawks will look to end their current 4-game losing streak in a revenge game against College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn on Saturday.  In their first meeting, the Hawks lost by 8 points while shooting only 36% for the game.