Hyped-up Harding avenges 2008 loss to Mansfield Sr.
By Joe Scalzo
WARREN — With a fan dressed like Nintendo’s Super Mario in the front row of the Warren Harding student section, and the school’s real Super Mario (aka Giants receiver Mario Manningham) elsewhere in the crowd, the Raiders boys basketball team on Saturday took on the only team to beat them in last year’s regular season, Mansfield Senior.
“We didn’t even talk about revenge,” Raiders coach Steve Arnold said. “The only thing we said was, this is a very good basketball team, we’re at our place and we haven’t lost here in a year and a half.
“We want to defend our home court.”
Harding, the state’s fourth-ranked team in Division I, played with passion and energy from the start and used a crucial run at the end of the second quarter to take control en route to a 87-69 victory.
The game was played in front of a capacity crowd that also boasted fans in Superman and Joker costumes and a lot of capes. It also had Manningham, a former standout guard at Harding who has achieved greater fame on the football field and is still close to Arnold.
“There was a lot of hype, we saw the crowd and coach told us it was going to be a tight game,” said junior guard Fred Williams, who had 10 points. “We were prepared to play.”
The teams played even through the first 12 minutes — due in large part to some missed shots by the Raiders — and Mansfield trailed just 23-21 with 4:27 left in the second quarter. Then Harding blitzed the Tygers with a 16-0 run over the next three minutes to take a 39-21 lead.
“I think that was the hardest three minutes we’ve played this year,” Arnold said. “Our guys were hunched over.”
Senior guard Desmar Jackson flirted with a quadruple double, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and nine steals. YSU recruit Sheldon Brogdon added 21 points, three rebounds and three assists for Harding (9-0), which looked like a team worthy of its high state rank.
“We played Lima Senior this year and they’re [Harding] real comparable to Lima Senior,” said Mansfield’s first-year coach, Effie James. “But we haven’t seen a player with the ability of Jackson and we haven’t seen a player with the overall game of Brogdon.
“I think this team [Harding] can do a lot of things this year. Of the teams I’ve seen, there can’t be two or three better than them in the state of Ohio, in my opinion.”
Junior guard Darrin Harris led unranked Mansfield (8-3) with 32 points, including 14 in the third quarter as the Tygers showed they wouldn’t go away. Mansfield made its first seven shots and 12 of its first 14 in the quarter, outscoring Harding 27-24 over that stretch by breaking the Raiders down off the dribble and beating them deep in transition.
“I told the kids the only thing I was disappointed in was our defense in the third quarter,” said Arnold. “We pride ourselves on our defense as a staff.
“Other than that, I thought we played extremely well.”
Harding still has some flaws — its interior defense isn’t as strong after graduating Damian Eargle and Chris Henderson and the Raiders could stand to improve on the defensive glass — but the team looks like it’s ready to make another deep run in the state tournament.
“We’ve played in so many big games over the last few years,” said Arnold, whose team lost a controversial regional final last season to Lakewood St. Edward. “When I looked into their eyes during pregame, they weren’t saying a lot.
“They knew this was a good team, a good program, and they went out and took care of business. There’s not a lot I have to say to motivate them.”
scalzo@vindy.com