43
Harding’s Mike Hughes has career night in comeback win.
By Brian Dzenis
YOUNGSTOWN
Harding vs East
Gallery
After making a three-point shot, Warren Harding’s Mike Hughes likes to imitate New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony.
He put his thumb and index finger together and tapped the remaining fingers to his head four times against East on Friday night, but it was his performance at the free throw line that really made the difference.
Hughes scored a career-high 28 points — including 12 at the line — to lead Harding to a 79-74 comeback victory.
“It says a lot about us fighting adversity,” Hughes said. “We go down, but we can come back.”
East squandered an 11-point lead going into the final quarter.
The Panthers (9-7) led through the first three quarters of a contest where the two sides split 42 turnovers. After missing his first two foul shots, Hughes made his next 12.
“I was trying to get to the line more,” Hughes said. “They knew I was a shooter, so I try to get them in the air and try to get to the line as much as I could.”
The Raiders (10-6) outscored the Panthers 25-9 in the deciding quarter.
Hughes scored nine in that stretch. Ke’Mondre Muhammad had seven of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Lynn Bowden added 23 points.
“We got it back a little bit in the third quarter before we got on the same page in the fourth,” Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich said. “This is a team that has to be on the same page. When they are — and we’ve seen it at times — it’s really good basketball.”
With the game tied at 71-71, Hughes hit a three to give Harding its first lead of the contest with two minutes left to play.
“When you have a small lineup, you have to try and spread them out. Obviously Bowden can beat you off the bounce and Mikey Hughes can beat you off the bounce,” Vlajkovich said. “We tried to spread them out and went to a zone set. They kind of cheated on Bowden and Mikey got an open look.”
East turned the ball over and Hughes hit the running layup. He appeared to be injured on the play, but it turned out to be cramps.
“I tease Mike a little bit. He has a flair for dramatics,” Vlajkovich joked. “When you play that hard, you’re going to cramp up. I thought it was worse than it was because of the reaction, but it wasn’t and thank God because he went back in there and helped us down the stretch.”
East’s De’Amonte Pagan then went 1-for-2 at the line and Harding turned the ball over. Pagan hit a putback shot with 40 seconds left, but that was the last of the Panthers’ points. One more score from Muhammad and a free throw by Bowden finished the final score.
East couldn’t make it three wins in a row.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” East coach Dennis Simmons said. “We shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers, with not executing and making bad decisions with the ball. I think there was a stretch where we had four straight turnovers.”
East’s ongoing issues with free-throws appeared to be solved in the first half where the Panthers were 8-for-11, but regressed in the second half.
Simmons’ squad was 4-for-11 in the second half, including a 1-6 stretch in the deciding quarter.
“We’re becoming a one-half free throw shooting team,” Simmons said. “We’re getting better. We go from not making free throws at all to now, we’re a one-half free throw shooting team.”
Pagan led East with 22 points, including 12 in the third quarter. Keshonn Loury added 15 points and Vonzell Matlock and Larry Ransom each had 10 points.