Simpson, Harding set for toughest test

March 9, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

Raiders PG hopes video study helps tonight at CSU

WARREN

Times change. These days, high school basketball players use whatever tools they can find to scout opponents.

YouTube is one of them. (For the Internet-challenged, YouTube is wonderful website loaded with videos).

After Warren Harding won the Division I Alliance district on Saturday, senior point guard Gabe Simpson said he searched YouTube for clips about Garfield Heights, the Raiders’ opponent tonight in the regional tournament at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center.

“I [found] highlights of Garfield Heights playing Massillon Jackson,” Simpson said of the Bulldogs’ 58-51 victory over the Polar Bears. “It was a close game.

“They don’t remind me of any [previous opponent],” Simpson said. “They are a big team, they have a good [point] guard and they have good shooters.”

In the regular season, the Raiders (23-3) lost to Massillon Jackson, 60-45.

What does Simpson, a three-year varsity player, learn from online videos?

“I’ve been [studying them] since we started playing bigger teams,” Simpson said. “I started looking at bigger teams’ players to see what are their main moves are, to see if they can shoot, if they can slash ... so I can see what I can do against them.”

Garfield Heights and Warren Harding have wins over Ursuline, the Division II district winner. The Bulldogs beat the Irish 77-67 while the Raiders’ victory was 83-71.

The Raiders defeated Lake, 48-42, to win the Alliance district. Simpson led all scorers with 18 points while Derek Culver added 11. Harding never trailed, but could not pull away.

The victory came two nights after Lake needed five overtimes to oust Copley, 95-92. In the stands, Simpson was amazed watching the game that would not end.

“They just kept scoring back-to-back to respond,” Simpson said.

Tonight’s game will be the Raiders’ toughest test of the season.

“They have five Division I [college] players,” Harding head coach Andy Vlajkovich said. “They’re very, very good but so are we.”

Simpson has no trouble picking out his team’s biggest victories so far.

“The last two playoff games — Louisville and Lake,” Simpson said. “They were probably the biggest games [along] with Ursuline [who] beat us last year on TV.”

He also enjoyed the Raiders’ 62-59 win at Poland on Jan. 5.

“That was a big one because they beat us last year at their place [and it was] on TV,” Simpson said.

Simpson has never been to the Wolstein Center, home of the Cleveland State Vikings. It doesn’t matter.

“I like playing in front of big crowds,” Simpson said.

The Raiders needed overtime to escape Louisville in the district semifinal, 62-58. The Raiders started strong, then suffered a 23-2 run by the Leopards in the second quarter to tighten the game.

“We were totally out of sync and out of rhythm,” Vlajkovich said.

In that game, Simpson led the Raiders with 19 points while Shakem Johnson scored 18.

Simpson said Vlajkovich’s tough-love approach has paid off.

“I like Coach V,” Simpson said. “He tries to be hard on us and I think it’s paying off — we’re actually a tougher team than we were at the beginning of the year.

“We’re going for bigger things now. Lake actually beat us in the summer when we scrimmaged them.”