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Big fourth lifts Harding
Special to the Vindicator
Photo
Warren Harding's Delshawn Bell (25) battles for the ball with Boardman's Leondre Jackson (23) and T.J. Irving (4) during their game Tuesday night.
Big fourth lifts Harding
By ryan jones
warren
Warren Harding coach Steve Arnold couldn’t find a reason why his team played three lackluster quarters before sprinting away from Boardman in the final frame.
The Raiders (9-1) exploded for 32 points in the fourth quarter and turned a 38-31 game at the three- quarter mark into a 70-46 blowout victory over the Spartans.
“As a coach you know you will have some games where you win ugly,” Arnold said. “And every coach I know would rather win ugly than lose pretty. That’s the ugliest three quarters we’ve played this year. I thought we had a good practice last night, but we were lackadaisical.
“Maybe we thought we had it won before we played the game.”
Senior guard J.D. Parker, who tallied 11 points and canned 3-of-4 from behind the arc, was the catalyst for the Raiders. He ended the third quarter and opened the fourth quarter with 3-point makes.
“He really got us going,” Arnold said. “After that we got some steals that lead to dunks in transition. We showed how we should have played the entire game in the fourth quarter.”
The Raiders had four players score in double figures including junior Shaheed Davis, who led Harding with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The 6-foot-8 forward had a thunderous one-handed jam following a Boardman turnover as part of a 9-0 run early in the final frame that pushed the lead to 52-35.
Arnold said Davis is being recruited by several NCAA teams and has drawn interest from USC, Florida, Xavier and Cincinnati.
“You see his development as a player,” he said. “When your 6-foot-8 1/2 and are able to shoot like he can and put the ball on the floor you’re going to get some attention. He’s a high-major type of kid, but he’s got to continue to get better and to stay unselfish. Those are the goals for Shaheed now.”
Boardman (5-7) held its only lead at 3-2, but kept it close for the first three quarters by forcing Harding into 17 turnovers and scrapping on the offensive boards.
Dayne Hammond led the Spartans with 11 points and six rebounds. His lay-up with about 30 seconds left in the third quarter cut the deficit to 35-31.
However, Harding outscored Boardman 35-15 the rest of the way.
The Raiders, who played the first of three games in five days, host Euclid Friday and travel to play St. Ignatius on Saturday.
Arnold said this stretch of games will be telling for his team.
“I told the guys after the GlenOak game last week that we were going to see what we’re made of,” he said. “It’s a murderers’ row schedule that we play.”
Harding’s Tre’ Brown scored nine of his 11 points in the second half and added five rebounds, while Craig McFerrin had 12 points and six rebounds.
Dave DiBernardi tallied nine points and six boards in defeat.