HERRIN — The Herrin Tigers had quite an opening week to the conference season. After the Tigers’ SIRR Ohio opener at Benton was postponed twice earlier in the week, Herrin rallied from fourth quarter deficits twice to beat Murphysboro Friday night 54-52 and Harrisburg Saturday night 65-56.

The Bulldogs led 28-23 at the half and appeared to take control in the third. Harrisburg extended it’s lead to as many as 13 late in the third before Herrin sophomore Haydon Mayer hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds to close the gap to 48-38 heading to the fourth.

Mayer’s three kickstarted a 15-0 Tigers’ run that was capped by another Mayer three to give Herrin a 50-48 lead. Mayer finished with 20 on the night.

The teams alternated buckets and free throws to get to a 54-all tie. Herrin’s Hayden Lence picked a great time for his only field goal of the night. His three-pointer from the corner with 2:00 left gave the Tigers the lead for good. Herrin scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points for the win. In fact, the Tigers outscored the Bulldogs 30-8 over the game’s final 8:03.

Herrin senior Billy Braid put the exclamation point on the win with a thunderous dunk to close out the scoring. Braid led all scorers with 21. Freshman Exavier Williams also reached double figures with 10 for the Tigers.

Michael Godsey led Harrisburg with 16. Andrew Bittle added 14.

Herrin improves to 2-1 (2-0) and will host unbeaten Massac County Tuesday night. Harrisburg falls to 1-2 (0-2) and will host Benton Tuesday night.