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Raiders are high atop AAC Red
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Warren Harding’s Jarelle Johnson (10) looks to the basket between Fitch defenders Zac Carr (23) and Dominic DiFrancesco (32) in the fourth period of their game Tuesday in Warren.
By Ryan Buck
WARREN
All five Warren Harding basketball starters posted double figures in Tuesday’s 76-55 victory over Austintown Fitch.
In clutch time, the Raiders made nine 3-pointers to pull away.
The undersized Falcons (5-6, 2-5 All-American Conference Red) cut the Harding lead to 47-45 with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter.
But the Raiders ignited a 12-0 run that continued into the fourth quarter of their second contest of the season.
“We have that in us,” said Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich, who has the Raiders at 10-1, 8-0. “That’s who we are. We’re a team of runs. I know it’s coming ... I just hope it times up well.”
Harding guard Shondell Jackson answered Fitch guard Jake Bullen’s driving layup with a putback of his own to give Harding a 49-45 lead at the outset of the decisive sequence.
Point guard Gabe Simpson followed with two free throws before the Raiders’ athleticism and relentless pressure forced three straight Fitch turnovers, leading to four more baskets.
Simpson scooped up his own 3-point miss for an easy lay-up before Marlin Richardson poked a ball out of the lane and found Jackson ahead of everyone for an emphatic fast break dunk for a 10-point lead with under a minute left in the third quarter.
Sophomore center Derek Culver found Jackson inside for an easy basket on the first Harding possession of the fourth quarter and Jarelle Johnson punctuated the run with two free throws.
“A couple empty possessions,” Fitch coach Brian Beany said. “Against a high-caliber team like [Harding], you’ve got to value every single possession.
“I think at one point we get three or four straight stops, but then we come back down and we can’t get a shot off and have three or four turnovers and that hurt us.
“Everybody wants to win, but you can take a lot out of a loss,” Beany said. “Those guys played hard. Our guys played hard.”
Fitch, thanks in large part to Bullen’s skill with ball in his hands and relentlessness in the lane and at the rim (en route to a team-high 16 points), crept back to within eight points with six minutes remaining.
Harding immediately and emphatically answered with a 16-4 run to close the game. Johnson made two baskets and Culver was effective inside.
The Raiders were the portrait of balance as well. Culver led the way with 17 points, Shakem Johnson totaled 16, Simpson 13 and Shondell Jackson and Jarelle Johnson each had 12. The Raiders also made nine 3-pointers as a team.
“I love it,” Vlajkovich said. “It’s something we’ve preached all year. It’s fun that way and I know every night’s not going to be perfect like that, but it’s something.
“We like the balance. It keeps everybody involved. It makes you harder to guard. It makes it harder to focus on any one guy.”
Beany’s bunch, playing without starting guard Scotty Duffy due to illness, knew the sizable task ahead of them.
“[Harding] shot the lights out of the ball and you’ve got to pick your poison with them if you want to kind of close out the inside or try the outside,” Beany said. “That’s the sign of a good team. You do what you can do and sometimes the other team’s just better.”
Fitch forward Anthony Pangio scored 15 points. Mark Herron of Harding made two of the Raiders’ nine 3-pointers.
Harding was also 13-14 from the free throw line.