43
Bigger Polar Bears handle Harding
By Joe Scalzo
WARREN
The only way teams have been able to beat Massillon Jackson this season is by playing “peach basket” basketball, slowing the game down to James Naismith levels in order to hold the Polar Bears to 50 points or so.
Problem is, that’s not Warren Harding’s game.
“We have our identity,” Raiders coach Andy Vlajkovich said. “We’re going to get out and go.”
With 6-foot-9 sophomore Derek Culver, that still might have worked. But without the suspended Culver, the Polar Bears had their way inside, powering past the Raiders 73-63 in Friday’s boys basketball game at Harding High.
“I thought we just got our tails kicked on the glass,” said Vlajkovich, whose team was out-rebounded 33-24. “They out-rebounded the dickens out of us.”
Dickens?
“Don’t put dickens in there,” he joked. “That’s an old-man term. I’ll get made fun of forever.”
Jackson’s super sophomores, Kyle Young (6-foot-6) and Logan Hill (6-5) did the most damage, with each scoring 23 points against a Raider lineup that featured just two players over 6-1.
Young grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds and Hill had six for the Federal League-champion Polar Bears (19-3), whose only losses were to nationally ranked Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary (66-51), Cincinnati Walnut Hills (61-50) and league rival Uniontown Lake (59-46). Tyler Dunn added 15 points and Jake Pallotta had 12, including two of Jackson’s seven 3-pointers.
“I thought we learned how to play hard against a smart, skilled team,” Vlajkovich. “There were a couple of possessions where we lost some focus and every time we lost focus, it was a 3.
“I don’t know how many 3s they made, but it felt like 14.”
Harding’s shaky start didn’t help, either. The Raiders missed their first six shots, including a dunk and a layup, as Jackson jumped out to a 9-1 lead.
The Polar Bears led 20-9 after the first quarter.
“We weren’t trusting our system, trusting our stuff, and we kind of got into a little bit of a rat race,” Vlajkovich said, “which I’m OK with, but it’s got to be controlled.”
After the Raiders trimmed the deficit to two midway through the second quarter, Jackson finished the half with a 16-2 run to take a 36-20 halftime lead. Young scored seven straight points during one stretch on back-to-back dunks, followed by a 3-pointer.
Still, Harding made a game of it in the third, trimming the deficit to 49-43 entering the fourth quarter. But the Polar Bears stretched the lead to double digits by the midway point of the fourth and Harding never again threatened.
“They’re a really smart, mature team,” Vlajkovich said. “We’re learning how to be one. That’s a great test for us.”
Junior Shakem Johnson scored 19 points with seven rebounds and four steals and Gabe Simpson added 16 points and four assists for the Raiders (17-5), who will play host to Euclid in the first round of the Division I Solon district on Wednesday.
While Culver is expected back for that game, Vlajkovich felt Friday’s game could be a preview of what they’ll face in the tournament.
“Hey, listen, he [Culver] may get into foul trouble in the tournament and we may go down a big and we’ve got to figure out how to rebound,” he said. “We’ll have to adjust.”