Raiders roll, remain perfect in AAC

February 6, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

Simpson scores 23, Culver 18 in return

By CHARLES GROVE

WARREN

It took a little while for Warren Harding to get its tires out of the mud, but once it did, the Poland Bulldogs had few answers as the Raiders pulled away for a 73-58 home victory.

The victory puts Harding (16-1, 13-0 All-American Red) one win away from a perferct conference record while Poland (14-4, 9-4 All-American Red) has now lost three of four.

Gabe Simpson led all scorers with 23 points for Harding. Derek Culver played for the first time since missing the last two games for reasons Andy Vlajkovich wouldn’t disclose. He finished with 18 including a thunderous dunk over Poland’s Jacob Burns that put the game beyond doubt in the fourth quarter.

Poland freshman Braedon O’Shaughnessy had an impressive breakout game as he dropped 19 on the Raiders, 10 in the first quarter. Matt Baker added 18 while Mike Gajdos finished with 10 points as he played most of the game with foul trouble.

Poland led 21-19 after Baker hit a 3-pointer to end the first quarter and the Bulldogs hung around to trail 34-31 at the break. Vlajkovich said Poland made it difficult for his team to get into any sort of rhythm during the fist 16 minutes.

“We were sputtering our wheels in the first half,” Vlajkovich said. “This team has always been a rhythm team and when we’re not playing in a rhythm we’ve just got to keep playing hard and let our defense get our transition game going.”

Baker hit another 3 midway through the third quarter to put the Bulldogs up 40-39, but then came an immediate response from Harding’s Marlin Richardson followed by a dunk from Shakem Johnson and before you knew it, Harding suddenly was up 49-40 and the Raiders stayed in control from there.

“They were guarding Derek with what seemed like the student body and the band down low,” Vlajkovich said. “But that left some shooters open and Marlin Richardson hit a couple really big 3s for us tonight.”

Poland was playing without leading scorer Jared Burkert, who has been out with a concussion, and Nick Buccieri, who is in the midst of a two-game suspension for picking up two technical fouls and an ejection in the Bulldogs’ previous game against Boardman. But head coach Ken Grisdale said he’s excited about how his team has grown with all the added adversity.

“I haven’t been this excited all season,” Grisdale said. “We’ve got four games left and if we can take this effort, get healthy and get our other bodies back then I’m excited about what we’re capable of doing. Tonight is as hard as we’ve fought all year and it’s the right time for that to start happening.”

Those holes in the offense were filled by O’Shaughnessy who could do no wrong for the Bulldogs, especially in the first half. The 5-foot-9 guard sliced up the Raiders’ defense on a number of occasions and was able to score down low despite the height and length of the Warren post presence.

“[O’Shaughnessy] has been waiting for his opportunity,” Grisdale said. “He’s an excellent athlete. He made big shots in the first half and played a really good game for us.”

Vlajkovich said he wasn’t surprised Poland gave his team quite a fight until the final minutes.

“Every time we play [Poland] they give us fits,” Vlajkovich said. They’ve got a great system and they run it well while withstanding our pressure.”