Raiders dunk Irish

February 19, 2016 at 12:10a.m.

Johnson, Simpson combine for 48 in Harding victory

By BRIAN DZENIS

YOUNGSTOWN

Go to any Warren Harding game and there’s a good chance you’ll see a dunk. It’s kind of the Raiders’ thing.

“When one of our players dunks for us, it’s a lot of momentum,” Harding forward Shakem Johnson said. “It gets us more aggressive on defense, we start talking more and everybody gets more into the game.”

As usual, there was some dunking as Warren Harding downed Ursuline, 83-72, in the Irish’ regular-season finale. But Raiders fans were treated to a rare sight: Gabe Simpson throwing one down.

The Harding point guard is more known for his lobs to teammates, but in the closing minutes of the contest, he had a one-handed jam, the first of his career. Simpson smiled when asked about the feat, but was a little ambivalent about it.

“I thought [my season] would be complete either way,” Simpson said.

Johnson and Simpson led the Raiders with 27 and 21 points, respectively, and Johnson showed off his hops with four dunks in the game. Last weekend’s NBA dunk contest gave Johnson some ideas.

“The dunk contest did inspire me to try some things out there,” Johnson said. “I could have done some of them differently, but I didn’t want to miss it.”

The Raiders (19-2) got big nights from Johnson and Simpson, but Harding’s Derek Culver —one of the area’s top prospects — got into foul trouble and scored just two points. He averages 16.6 points and 10.8 rebounds.

“It was tough for him. That kind of stuff happens with kids,” Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich said.

Ursuline (16-6) was in the same boat with one of its marquee players, Greg Parella. According to coach Keith Gunther, Parella averages close to 25 points, but finished with 14 against the Raiders.

“You could tell they were face-guarding him all over the place and that made it tough for him to get his shots,” Gunther said.

Harding took the lead in the second quarter and never let go, but not for a lack of effort from Ursuline. After the Irish guards were pushed to midcourt by an aggressive Raider defense in the first half, they came out in the second half with a different look. Gunther put all three of his bigs — Armon Nasseri, Anthony Howell and Devin Harden — on the floor to set screens for Parella and Mike Hughes. It worked for a while, cutting Ursuline’s deficit to four points in the third quarter.

“The bigger lineup got us some put-backs,” Gunther said. “It got us easy buckets, but I still think we missed a lot of buckets around the basket.”

Hughes led the Irish with 19 points and Nasseri added 15. Johnson and Simpson played well the whole contest, but the x-factor late in the game was Lynn Bowden, who came off the bench to score 15 points, including six in the fourth quarter. Mark Herron added 11 points.

Johnson and Simpson iced the game with back-to-back dunks and each celebrated with Harding fans.

“They beat us on TV last year and we had to get them back,” Simpson said. This was a statement win more than anything,”