Raiders down, but not out

Warren Harding rallied from a 16-0 deficit to upend North Canton.
CANTON -- In March, high school basketball teams that begin games missing their first nine shots and fall behind 16-0 usually start thinking ahead to next season.
Not Warren Harding.
Despite surrendering the first five baskets and three free throws of Thursday's Division I district semifinal game at the Canton Civic Center, the third-seeded Raiders rallied.
Senior guard Brian Wright banked a shot into the net with 2.3 seconds to go to give Harding a 45-43 victory over North Canton Hoover.
"When we were down 16-0, there wasn't anybody in the gym who thought we could come back," said Wright, who led Harding with 11 points. "But everybody on this team believed we could do it. We knew we had to dig down deep, play defense and rebound."
The second-seeded Vikings (19-3), whose only other defeats were to Federal League opponent Canton McKinley, lost despite 27 points from senior guard Bret Wackerly.
McKinley is final foe
Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Harding will play top-seeded McKinley for a regional berth.
"I can't wait -- we've been waiting for them all year, ever since they knocked us out last year," said Wright, referring to last year's district semifinal game.
With the game tied 43-43, Wright said the called play was designed to set up senior guard Mario Manningham after a screen-and-roll.
"But one of our post [players] got caught up with one of the twins [Hoover seniors Brian and John Scheller]," Wright said. "So I saw what was going on and tried to get something going to the basket."
Raiders coach Steve Arnold said Wright jumped the gun.
"We wanted to clear it out and open the floor," Arnold said. "We wanted to go at eight and he went maybe a couple seconds too soon because we left time on the clock."
Arnold said he didn't mind that Wright would decide what would happen on the final possession.
"He's a tough-minded kid and we wanted the ball in his hands," Arnold said.
On Hoover's final inbounds play, Manningham, who scored 10 points, stole the ball to end the game.
That the Raiders even had a shot after trailing 19-7 in the first quarter is a testament to positive spirit, Arnold said.
Chipping away
"I can't say enough about how the kids did not get down," Arnold said. "We just tried to keep the kids' spirits up, telling them to chip away, chip away at it,"
During Hoover's perfect start, Wackerly hit two 3-pointers and Brian Scheller scored seven points on a 3-pointer, a basket and two free throws. Seven of Wackerly's 10 baskets were from behind the arc.
With 2:51 to go in the first quarter, Raiders senior guard Roddy Fuller broke through the Hoover defense for a layup.
Fuller added another bucket and senior forward Terrin Brown connected for a basket and free throw as Harding cut the Hoover lead to 19-7.
"It was frustrating, but we just had to suck it up," said Fuller, who scored 10 points in the first half. "When our buckets just weren't going in, we knew we had to pick it up."
After neither team scored in the first three minutes of the second quarter, the Raiders surged back into the game with a 13-4 advantage.
The Vikings gobbled up most of the final minute of the first half, then saw Manningham block a shot to set up Wright's layup with three seconds to go for a 23-20 score.
"They've done it all year - they've shown that they won't quit," Arnold said. "[This team has] a heart of a lion."
Back-to-back buckets by Manningham in the third quarter gave Harding its first lead, 27-25.
In the final quarter, senior forward Steve Williams scored to put Harding ahead, 43-38, with 2:40 to go.
But Wackerly tied the game with a jump shot from the paint and a 3-pointer.
"Bret's a great player, no question," Arnold said. "He finished with 27, but no one else was in double figures.
"A couple of times we lost Bret, but we were able to get a stop when we needed one," Arnold said. "They want to build screens for him and he does a great job of reading screens."