Warren Harding, East advance to district

March 3, 2012 at 12:10a.m.

By John Bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

ALLIANCE

East may be the class of the upper bracket of the Division I boys basketball tournament at Alliance High School, but Warren Harding (18-3) truly is the upper class.

That’s based on sectional championship wins by the schools, over Howland and Boardman, respectively, on Friday night.

East’s 78-63 win over Howland (14-8) and Harding’s 60-30 defeat of Boardman (4-18) set up a district semifinal showdown between the top-seeded Raiders and No. 4 Panthers (15-6) on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

They’re not that far apart, but there is a bit of a yardstick: In a game on Jan. 31, Harding bounced East, 72-56.

“They’re one of the top teams in the state and I always like going against quality teams because we’ll get the best,” East coach Mark Cherol said.

Harding coach Steve Arnold said his Raiders didn’t play well.

“When you look at the score, it appears that we played well, but we didn’t play as well as we did the previous 10 games,” Arnold said. “We got a little sloppy and didn’t play with any energy or with any defensive mindset.

“I told them that if they play like that, they’re not going to win a district championship.”

Of East, Arnold said: “They played extremely hard and buy into Coach’s philosophy and if we don’t have more intensity than we had today, we’re not going to win on Wednesday.”

Jesse Hardin led Harding with 16 points.

Boardman’s Dayne Hammond had 13 points in his last game as a Spartan. The 6-foot-6 player attempted to transfer to Harding before the season.

“It didn’t work out with the state because of issues, but we had a tough year, yet I loved the time I spent with Boardman and the players and I loved the time I spent with the coaches,” Hammond said. “But it was a tough year.”

He said the loss was bittersweet.

“I grew up with the guys from Harding playing with an AAU team, so they’ve been my friends since I was a kid,” Hammond said. “It was bittersweet, but I wish them the best the rest of the season.”

Boardman coach Dan McKeown took some consolation in how his Spartans played.

“We did a good job controlling the tempo and kind of kept them in a lower-scoring game because I know they want to get out and run.”

But, in the end, Harding’s size and length created problems, especially in rebounding.

“Our guys did a good job boxing out and creating space, but that length differential enabled them to come over us and get the basketball.”

Howland had a 30-point fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough.

“You hate to lose, but to see Mark [Cherol] experience this success is great for a good man,” Howland coach Bill Bogan said of complimenting the Panthers.

Bogan attributed some of East’s early bulge to its athleticism.

“We stressed getting to the rim and we thought we could get [Mike] Hornbuckle and [Deontay] Scott in foul trouble, but we didn’t follow the game plan real well.

“But we came out and had a good year — to [lose to] one of the best East teams Mark’s ever had — is certainly no embarrassment.”

Bogan said that his Tigers weren’t pressed in games after late December.

“We threw some big numbers on the board [high-scoring games] so teams haven’t pressed us since Christmas and I think that hurt us because East came out and got in our faces. As much as we like to go up and down, it’s not something we were used to at this point in the season.”

Hornbuckle had 20 points.

Cherol said he told his kids that they’d have the advantage in quickness over the Tigers, who were led by Brendan Cope’s 19 points.