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McGhee Dom-inates as Raiders beat Cardinals
Gallery
By BOB ETTINGER
sports@vindy.com
WARREN
Warrren Harding senior Dom McGhee might have a hard time choosing between a place in the history book and his team getting a victory. It was a choice he didn’t have to make, however, as he led the Raiders past Canfield, 80-66, with a school-record 45 points on Friday night.
“I can’t explain the feeling,” McGhee said. “Having the record is a great honor. But it’s also great to get the win. The team needed it.”
The milestone was one of many Harding coach Gabe Bubon has seen in the last week or two, but at least this time it was one he’s happy to celebrate.
“This was a heck of a game,” Bubon said. “I told him he was lucky I didn’t have the record here because I’d have taken him out. It was a heck of a game.
“You’re not going to get too many opportunities in life to do that. I set the record at Point Park 20 years ago. You don’t think about it at the time, but 20 years later, it’s kind of cool. It seems like every game I coach here there’s a record. Thank God this one was a good record.”
McGhee tied, then broke, the record of 44 points, set by Sheldon Brogdon in 2009, with a pair of free throws with 1:13 to play. Bubon removed McGhee from the game prompting a round of hugs from the Raiders.
“To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what the record was,” McGhee said. “Once I got to about 42, they told me the record was 43. When I got to 43, they told me they lied, it was 44. A lot of the credit goes to my teammates. They were in my ear telling me to knock them down. They helped in the process.”
The Raiders (8-6, 4-2 in All-American Conference Red Tier) helped McGhee all night.
“The offense tonight was the most fluent, the most comfortable, it’s been,” McGhee said. “We didn’t force anything and we didn’t have many turnovers. My teammates were getting me the ball in the right spots. It was a fun victory. I can’t thank my teammates enough. They were trying to help me break it. They saw I was close and were trying to get me the ball any time they could. I didn’t try to force anything. I was trying to take good shots. This was for my teammates. We needed the win.”
McGhee netted 14 points in each of the first two periods and 13 more in the third before going 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the fourth. Each time the Cardinals (8-8, 3-3) started cutting into the lead, McGhee got on a roll.
“[McGhee] hit some great shots,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said. “We always knew he was capable of doing things like that. Congratulations to Dom. A night like that is exciting for a player.”
D’Muntize Owens added 15 points for the Raiders while Aydin Hanousek did his best to minimize McGhee’s damage with 30 points for the Cardinals.
Harding took a 17-9 lead late in the opening quarter and Canfield spent the rest of the night fighting back, but wasn’t able to overcome the deficit, though they were as close as 40-38 early in the third.
“Momentum certainly played a part,” Muckleroy said. “We cut it down, but at that point in time we needed a stop. We couldn’t get consecutive stops and scores to stop their momentum. Once they extended that lead, the game was over.”