Harding regroups for bonus session win

By CHARLES GROVE

cgrove@vindy.com

alliance

Despite ending up on the wrong end of a blistering 23-3 run in the second quarter, the Warren Harding boys basketball team pulled out a 62-58 overtime win over Louisville in Wednesday’s Division I district semifinal game at Alliance High School.

Gabe Simpson led the Raiders with 19 points while Shakem Johnson scored 18. Derek Culver also finished in double figures with 10 points.

Louisville’s Drew Noble led all scorers with 24 points while Jake Adams had 15 points and Chris Libertore had 13.

The Raiders (22-3) entered district play with a 91-47 win over Akron Springfield and a 115-42 win over East.

And it looked to be more of the same when the Raiders led 19-4 late in the first quarter.

Noble, who had sat much of that first quarter with two fouls, highlighted the monster run by the Leopards (19-5), scoring 10 points.

It seemed like the Raiders had become their own worst enemy, turning the ball over consistently and failing to get into their transition basketball.

“It was a long period,” Harding head coach Andy Vlajkovich said. “It wasn’t just them pressing and getting layups. We just couldn’t get organized on offense and we couldn’t guard anyone, which means we couldn’t get out on the break.

“We were totally out of sync and out of rhythm.”

A few hard fouls and a double technical foul in the second quarter had both teams wearing their emotions on their sleeves during the big run.

Despite the confusion in the second quarter, Vlajkovich had his team run into the locker room, trying to keep his guys as positive as he could.

“I just didn’t want our body language to turn negative,” Vlajkovich said. “[Halftime] gave us a chance to regroup.

“Our problems in the second quarter were mental and emotional. That wasn’t a halftime to rip guys, that was a halftime to rally the troops and make them feel good about themselves.”

Johnson took that message to heart as he scored 16 points in the second half, much of the time crashing the offensive boards and creating his own chances off of missed shots.

“I saw I wasn’t getting the ball so I had to go attack it at the glass and let the game come to me instead of trying to force it,” Johnson said.

The Raiders retook the lead at 37-36 on two free throws from Johnson and went into the fourth quarter tied at 39. Neither team was able to find much separation.

Harding led 54-52 with a minute to go and got a stop on defense, but Culver threw the ball away, which led to a Leopard layup, tying the game.

On the next possession while trying to set up for the final play, Harding threw the ball away again and the fourth-seeded Leopards were sniffing an upset, but a missed jumper sent the game to overtime.

Harding went ahead 60-57 with less than a minute to go in overtime, but fouled Libertone on a 3-point attempt with 19 seconds to play.

Libertone hit the first one and Vlajkovich called a timeout. Libertone missed the final two free throws and a fast break the other way sealed the game.

“We had a guy on the baseline that we were going to go for a three and if not we had a one-on-one with our big boy inside,” Louisville head coach Tom Siegfried said.

“They switched out on it and did a nice job to bog it down.

“At that point we realized we were running out of time so we just had to get one up.”

Vlajkovich credited his team’s focus coming out of the locker room as one of the big reasons his team prevailed.

“Down the stretch we played good defense and guys locked in to what the game plan was,” Vlajkovich said.

“I think that’s how any game with the magnitude of two good teams is going to be.”