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Harding escapes from pesky Lake
Simpson scores 18 as Raiders win district
By CHARLES GROVE
ALLIANCE
A year after falling in the district final to Shaker Heights, the Warren Harding High School boys basketball team won the Alliance Division I district championship with a 48-42 win over Uniontown Lake.
Gabe Simpson led all scorers with 18 points while Derek Culver added 11 in a contest that Harding never trailed.
The Lake attack was paced by Chandler Vaudrin who led the team with 17 points, the only Blue Streak player to reach double figures.
Lake not only had to play the top-seeded Raiders on one fewer night’s rest, but had to bounce back from Thursday’s grueling five overtime semifinal contest against Copley.
But the Blue Streaks showed no signs of fatigue from the opening tip, making life difficult for the Raiders offense in the first quarter by swatting away multiple shots.
While the Raiders weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders, Harding led 10-5 after the first quarter and the message was the same as it’s been all season from head coach Andy Vlajkovich — defense.
That message was taken to heart by Culver, who ended the first half with seven blocked shots and altered numerous others, propelling Harding to a 22-16 lead.
“I just wanted to start playing tougher on the defensive end,” Culver said. “The past couple games my offensive game hasn’t come along so I had to find another way to help my team improve.”
That defense held Lake’s biggest scoring threat, Vaudrin, to just three points in the first half.
Vaudrin scored 14 in the final two quarters to spark the Blue Streaks, but Vlajkovich credited Lynn Bowden, who was tasked with face-guarding Vaudrin the length of the court every possession.
“I just needed a tough-minded guy and that’s who [Bowden] is,” Valjkovich said. “He’s a competitor who loves the big spotlight. He’s as invested in this team as anyone we have.”
Lake took a run at Harding in the third quarter when a 6-0 run cut the Raiders lead to 26-24, but immediate responses from Simpson and Shakem Johnson at the rim gave Harding more breathing room.
Johnson put an exclamation point at the end of the quarter by driving and finishing at the rim as time expired, giving the Raiders a 32-28 lead.
The Blue Streaks made it close on two occasions in the fourth quarter. The first was a 3-pointer from Drew Myers at the top of the key over the outstretched hands of Culver to bring the score to 35-33.
The other was when Jack Lostoski hit from deep with 18.4 seconds to go, bringing the score to 44-42.
But Simpson and Bowden went 4 for 4 from the foul line in the final seconds to seal the title.
Bowden said his team showed less emotion than in their overtime win against Louisville in the district semifinals and were more focused on the task at hand in the final.
Harding now moves on to a regional semifinal matchup against Garfield Heights on Wednesday, at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland. Tip-off is at 6:15 p.m.
“They have five division-one players,” Vlajkovich said. “They’re very, very good but so are we. We’re going to go up there with the same intentions we had tonight.”