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Fitch can’t keep late lead against AAC rival
Fitch can’t
keep late
lead against
AAC rival
By Ryan Buck
AUSTINTOWN
If the dawn of a true All-American Conference beckons, best take notice now.
The Warren Harding boys basketball team earned its first lead of the second half with just over two minutes left in the game and edged Austintown Fitch, 60-54, Friday night in the first meeting of the two teams in their new league.
The Raiders are now 2-0 after two conference wins to open their season and membership in the AAC.
A pair of offensive rebounds and three Derek Culver free throws preceded Harding guard Gabe Simpson’s two go-ahead free throws, giving Harding a 53-52 lead with 2:07 left in the game. Shakem Johnson then made a crucial steal and fast-break slam dunk moments later to end any hopes of a Fitch comeback.
“I thought we were really tough tonight,” said Harding coach Andrew Vlajkovich. “Execution-wise, we were kind of in a rut and defensively we had some mental lapses.
“But when crunch time came we got buckets we needed to get and we got stops we needed to get and we tightened up our discipline down the stretch.
“Some nights it’s better to be tough than good.”
With leading scorer Shondell Jackson sidelined with an illness, Simpson, generously listed at 5-foot-8, emerged with 18 points for the game. Thirteen came in the second half and, along with a defense buoyed by the 6-8 sophomore forward Culver, allowed Harding to escape with a challenging early season road win.
With Harding ahead 55-52, the Falcons readied for a key offensive possession. After a timeout with 1:00 remaining, Johnson poked away a Fitch pass at halfcourt and raced past Scotty Duffy and Jake Bullen for an emphatic dunk and an insurmountable five-point lead with 45 seconds left in the game.
“He plays with a lot of energy and he’s a very good athlete and that kind of sealed the deal for us,” Vlajkovich said.
Bullen, en route to a game-high 22 points, cut the Fitch deficit to 2 points with a driving layup, but two more Simpson free throws closed the game.
“It was an old Steel Valley [Conference] game revisited,” said Fitch coach Brian Beany. “I told my guys, ‘Your effort, your heart, your intensity, I couldn’t ask any more from you.’
“There was a crucial stretch there where we had a [50-44] lead where we don’t block out twice in two possessions and they make a two and then they make a 3 and now all of a sudden, the lead’s gone. I told them that every possession’s gotta count.”
After what Beany estimated were seven consecutive possessions in the fourth, an offensive lapse gave way to Johnson’s steal-and-dunk.
“We were looking for a two with one of our set plays and they got into us and stole it,” Beany said.
Harding’s victory concludes a turbulent week at the school where students were injured in an afternoon fight as school let out Wednesday. A video of the incident and social media conversation have since gone viral.
“I’m not speaking as a coach, I’m speaking as a coach and a representative of the community that we have some great kids in that town, we have great teachers in that school and that school is a great place to work,” said a visibly emotional Vlajkovich, a U.S. History teacher at Harding.
“We have 1,500 great kids and 25 great kids in that locker room and that’s what I want the message to be.”