New Castle uses late run to roll past Warren, 82-66

The Hurricanes outscored Warren Harding 24-14 down the stretch.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- For the Warren Harding Raiders, it was their first game of the season, while for the New Castle Hurricanes, it was their fourth outing of the 2001-02 campaign.
The Hurricanes, playing their usual up-tempo game for most of the evening, took the legs out from underneath the Raiders down the stretch for an 82-66 victory in non-league boys basketball action Friday night at the Ne-Ca-Hi Field House.
"We got beat," said Harding coach Frank Bubba. "We simply got beat. You can make all the excuses you want to and all I can say is that we are not where we want to be yet.
"We knew when we scheduled this game that it was going to be tough," Bubba said. "But coming down here to play a team as good as they are is what we have to do because if we are going to get better, we need to play this caliber of competition all the time."
Close start: The game was close at the outset, largely due to the Hurricanes (4-0) turning the ball over 10 times in the first quarter before finishing with 15 giveaways in the first half.
"I certainly wasn't happy with the turnovers, especially considering that in our first three games, we didn't have 15 turnovers combined," said New Castle coach John Sarandrea. "But you have to give Harding the credit for that. They are very quick; they really understand how to get into the passing lanes."
With the New Castle mistakes, the Raiders were able to take a 14-12 lead at the end of the opening period before the Hurricanes came back to execute an effective half-court press to put together a 26-point second period for a 38-31 advantage at the break.
"We knew that was going to be a part of their game and we worked on it," said Bubba. "The timing simply wasn't there. I don't want to use it as an excuse, but the simple fact is that the football players have only had one scrimmage."
Double threat: When faced with "crunch" time, it was time for the Hurricanes to go to their two high-scoring seniors in Dom Joseph and Hoover Gibson, and the pair responded. After a slow start, Joseph scored 10 of his 22 in the final dozen minutes.
"He [Joseph] can make a lot of good things happen for us," said Sarandrea. "He is our best player and a three-year starter who is very unassuming. He is very, very important to our basketball team."
Despite being saddled with foul problems, Gibson put on a clinic down the stretch as he scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half.
"Hoover Gibson played a super game for us," praised Sarandrea. "He did what he needed to do when we needed it most."
Holding the seven-point lead at the intermission, the Hurricanes stretched their lead to as many as a dozen in the third period before the Raiders once again cut their deficit to 58-52.
That was as close as Warren got as the Hurricanes steadily built their lead to the largest margin at 78-60 before settling for the 16-point victory.
Dante Spino had 14 points and Mark DeMonaco scored 12 for New Castle. Ethan Banks, Prescott Burgess and Danny Stella each had 11 points to lead five Raiders in double figures.
"One thing I will say about these kids is that they have a tremendous amount of pride," said Bubba. "They don't like to lose and I know we will come out tomorrow night and be ready to compete. We will get ready to play the rest of our schedule and we will get better."