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Harding christens new home with romp
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Harding's Fred Williams shoots past Mark Thornton of East during Friday game at Harding.
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Harding's Desmar Jackson pulls down a rebound past Mark Thornton of East.
By Doug Chapin
The Raiders overwhelmed the East Panthers, 90-53.
WARREN — The Warren Harding High basketball team made its first game in the new school building’s gymnasium a rousing success.
The Raiders used two decisive runs on Friday to rout East, 90-53, on the opening night for boys basketball in Ohio.
With a brand new facility, the Raiders certainly are thinking about the future. But they also are focusing somewhat on the past, specifically March 9, when Harding suffered a controversial 77-75 overtime loss to Lakewood St. Edward in the Division I regional final at Cleveland State University.
“It’s been a long offseason. We are just starting to get what happened last year out of our system and it was good to get back going tonight,” Harding coach Steve Arnold said. “We had summer league and team camps and everything, and the preseason, but now we’ve got the games. We’re ready to move forward now.”
But the loss to St. Edward still provides incentive for the Raiders.
“If you look at the cover of our program it says ‘Unfinished Business.’ All summer we talked about finishing games,” Arnold said. “Whatever happened last year against St. Ed’s, calls or no calls, the onus goes on us.
“We didn’t finish the game. We didn’t take care of our business. So that’s our rallying point, to finish.”
Friday, the Raiders got balanced scoring with four players in double figures. Desmar Jackson led the way with 21 points, Angel Gonzalez had 20, Sheldon Brogdon tallied 18 and Fred Williams scored 11.
Gonzalez, a 6-foot-4 junior transfer, led the Raiders on the boards with 11 rebounds. Brogdon added 10 boards to go with four assists and three steals while Williams dished out five assists.
East was led by Kenny Carter who tallied 20 points, 13 in the first quarter. Jarelle Burt added 10 points, four assists and five rebounds. Carter led the rebounding with seven and Anthony Bowers added six.
“We came out playing really well at the start of the game, which I was glad to see,” East coach Mark Cherol said. “Harding has a very good team and we were right with them until we gave them that run at the end of the half. It’s like a boxer. They just pounded us and pounded us and it wears you down.
“Last year, we lost to Akron Firestone, another very good team, and Harding back-to-back, then we came back and had a decent season,” Cherol said. “I think if we don’t give up, we can bounce back from tonight.”
Harding led 17-16 after one quarter and held a 29-26 advantage with 3:22 remaining in the second period. The Raiders put together a 13-6 run to close the half, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Jackson to make the score 42-32.
East never got closer than eight points in the second half, the last time at 51-43 with 4:06 left in the third quarter. A 13-0 Raiders streak to close the period put the game out of reach at 64-43.
“There was a lot of excitement here,” Arnold said. “I think the community was excited for us playing in the new gym. I know the coaching staff and the kids looked forward to it, and we had a great crowd for the first game. There was a lot of energy.”