Harding wins, 52-50, after leading by 15

The Raiders led, 44-29, early in the fourth quarter, but gradually saw Ursuline come back in the Steel Valley Conference game .
By DOUG CHAPIN
Vindicator Correspondent
WARREN -- Though the high school boys basketball season just passed the halfway point, many coaches already are looking forward to tournament time.
Ursuline's Keith Gunther and Warren G. Harding's Steve Arnold take it one step further -- they had the tournament in mind when their 2005-06 schedules were put together. Both considered Harding's 52-50 Steel Valley Conference win over the Irish on Friday night another opportunity for their teams to improve as they look ahead to the postseason.
Tough stretch
"We are in a tough part of our schedule," said Gunther, whose Irish are 8-3 overall and 4-1 in the SVC. "We had Harding tonight, we've got Massillon on Saturday and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on Tuesday. Last season we were 17-3 but our schedule wasn't good enough to make us competitive in the tournament. We wanted to toughen it up to prepare us for the tournament. This stretch we're in will be a good test of the kids and will show us where we are at."
Ursuline will compete in the Division III district at Salem. Harding goes to the Division I tournament at Canton.
"As a coaching staff we thought we could be 10-1 or 9-2 at this point," said Arnold, who has the Raiders at 8-3 and 4-0 in the league. "But we knew we had some young guys we had to develop and our schedule should help prepare us. We are in a stretch where our next four games are against Euclid, Mentor, Mooney and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary. We talked about the schedule with the kids, saying we could schedule down and have a great record, but they wanted to keep playing this way. It's the only way to get better."
Can't let opponent linger
One thing Arnold wants his team to improve on is closing out games. The Raiders led by 15, 44-29, in the first 10 seconds of the fourth quarter, but gradually saw the Irish come back. Ursuline got the lead under 10 at 44-35, but still trailed 47-39 with 1:17 remaining. A three-point play by Jerome Jones, who led all scorers with 22 points, left Ursuline behind 47-42 with 1:02 left.
Roddy Fuller converted both ends of a one-and-one for Harding, then after another Jones bucket at 0:39, Lance Randall canned a 3-pointer for the Irish with 15 seconds showing on the clock. That made the score 49-47. Lawrence Coleman canned two big free throws for the Raiders two seconds later, and Fuller made another free throw at the four-second mark to offset a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Ursuline's Jason White.
& quot;We didn't close out the game like we should have," Arnold said. "We'll take the win, we're happy with that, but when you are up by 15 points you should be able to finish off an opponent, especially at home. Our decision-making was not good and we did not take care of the ball.
"We work on those kinds of situations all the time in practice, we've got to get better at it. You have to give Lawrence Coleman a lot of credit, though, for nailing those big free throws."
Pleased at perseverance
Gunther was pleased his team persevered on a night when the Irish did not shoot well, including a 2-for-9 performance from the foul line.
"We never thought we were out of it. We wanted to keep battling to get the lead under 10. When we did, we pressed a little bit and they made some turnovers and missed some free throws, while we finally started to make some shots," he said. "We had an opportunity to fold and never did."
Harding got 12 points apiece from Fuller and Bryan Wright and eight from Damion Eargle who also grabbed seven rebounds. Harding held a 26-23 edge on the boards. Tashon Williams contributed six points and six rebounds and Keelyn Franklin added seven points off the bench.
Jones added seven rebounds despite sitting much of the third quarter after picking up his fourth foul two minutes after intermission. D'Aundray Brown had seven rebounds and seven points, White had nine points and Lance Randall six. The Irish shot just 39 percent (21 of 54) from the field to go with their dismal performance at the line.
Shortcomings
"We wanted to keep the game under 50 points," Gunther said. "We were right there, but they got nine offensive rebounds, we had too many turnovers against their pressure, we missed some open looks we usually knock down and we were two for nine at the line -- and we lost by two."
After a 16-16 tie at the end of the first quarter, the game was 21-21 midway through the second period. Ursuline bogged down offensively and the Raiders went on a 19-4 run which stretched late into the third quarter.
"We mixed up our defenses quite a bit, using different types of presses," Arnold said. "We thought our length would be effective pressuring their guards. But we have lots of things we have to work on. We've got to get better."
After all, the tournament draw is only three weeks away.