Harding on regional mission

By Tom Williams

Fred Williams scored 19 points while Angel Gonzalez made 10 rebounds in the Raiders’ 52-42 victory.

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS — Despite a sluggish start that saw Warren Harding’s high-powered offense limited to 18 points in the first half, Raiders junior guard Fred Williams said frustration wasn’t mounting.

“We had a bad first half, but we were only down by two,” said Williams of the tempo dictated by Cleveland St. Ignatius. “We knew we could pull this thing out, but it would take hard work on defense, [us to] get on the boards and hustle.”

Trailing 20-18 in Saturday’s Division I district final at Warrensville Heights High School, the Raiders (22-2) turned on their jets in the third quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 20-7 to seize control.

After a fairly even fourth quarter, Harding triumphed, 52-42, for its second straight district title.

“It feels good to get two back-to-back — I almost cried,” senior guard Desmar Jackson said. “But it’s a good feeling though.”

Saturday’s win sends Harding back to the Cleveland State regional, the site where the Raiders’ season ended last year with a controversial last-second loss to Lakewood St. Edward.

Wednesday at 8 p.m., Harding will play St. Edward in the regional semifinal at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland.

Harding coach Steve Arnold said his team’s theme is Unfinished Business.

“That’s what’s on the cover of our program” Arnold said. “We really wanted to get back [to regional].”

Harding did it despite the loss of senior forward Sheldon Brogdon whose season ended with a torn ACL requiring surgery.

“This game was [about being] back-to-back [district champions], but it also was about Sheldon,” Williams said. “We know how bad he wanted to be here but he couldn’t. So we won this game for him.”

Brogdon is recovering from surgery.

Igniting the Raiders’ surge was Williams whose 10 points in the third quarter included three buckets and a 3-pointer. He also made three rebounds and a steal.

Asked when he last played so well in one quarter, Williams shrugged.

“It’s been a while,” said Williams who led all scorers with 19. “I don’t know what was going through my mind but I got into the zone, just took control.”

Also helping the Raiders’ second-half ascent was junior forward Angel Gonzalez who made seven of his game-high 10 rebounds plus six free throws.

“We played hard, we played together, we played happy,” said Gonzalez who scored 15 points.

Arnold downplayed his halftime message.

“The only thing we talked about at halftime was that we missed some easy shots in the first half and we needed to get up-and-down [the court] a little bit more,” Arnold said. “We allowed Ignatius to control the tempo in the first half.”

At the start, Gonzalez scored two baskets as Harding jumped out to an 8-2 lead. But an 11-0 run by the Wildcats (18-5) gave them a 16-10 edge.

“We had a little lead there and then [Fred Schirmer] comes in there and hit two 3s that got them right back into the game,” Arnold said. “We gave them too much space.”

The Raiders changed their defense (from zone to half-court trap) and the Wildcats went scoreless on their next four possessions.

“That’s pretty much the defense we like to use when we need to get going,” Arnold said. “We tried to keep them off-balance as much as we could.

In the second half, it was the Wildcats struggling to cover ground.

Jackson finished with 12 points including eight free throws. From the foul line, the Raiders outscored the Wildcats, 20-1.

Shonn Miller came off the Wildcats’ bench to score 14 points and make seven rebounds. Schirmer hit three 3-pointers for nine points.

williams@vindy.com