WARREN – After a rocky begin with foul and capturing issues, the Warren G. Harding males’s basketball crew confirmed some life and spooked visiting Boardman, who leads the All-American Convention, a bit.
Understood down the stretch, the Spartans had been capable of clinch a 54-43 victory that left the Raiders 1-7 general and 1-Three in convention play.
“We knew what they had been going to do”, Harding’s coach Keelyn Franklin mentioned. “They’re crew and executed. It took us a short while to do what we wished to do defensively. We weren’t stunned. I believe our lack of focus to start out the sport allowed them to go on the market and do what they did. “
The Spartans (11-Three, 5-Zero) had been targeted from the early lead as they constructed a 17-Eight lead after 1 / 4.
Boardman slowed the tempo and executed most of his offensive units to perfection with seven gamers getting into the scoring column in that opening body.
“That’s all the time good, clearly” Boardman’s coach Pat Birch mentioned. “You make your self comfy. Our first possession was a pleasant and straightforward search for us. I believe we performed very effectively in that first quarter on protection.
“They (Harding) discovered their stability within the second quarter and so they had been fairly even.”
Harding needed to sit a few starters with foul bother.
The groups performed the second quarter pretty evenly with Boardman main 25-15 on the half. The groups had a mixed shot of four of 20 within the interval.
“I assumed we actually obtained slowed down in that second quarter,” Birch mentioned. “We felt a bit not sure of what we wished to do. They began getting some second likelihood factors. At halftime, we went up 10 and it felt like they’d some life to it. “
The third quarter turned the opposite approach in favor of the Spartans when DJ Evans scored 7 of his 13 factors.
Boardman held a 43-31 lead into the fourth quarter regardless of Ethan Anderson fouling his third with 6:35 remaining within the quarter.
Then Harding’s Johnny Graham hit a Three-pointer to start out the fourth quarter, and the Raiders added baskets from Dom Foster and Ty Pennington because the Raiders had led 46-41 with two minutes remaining.
“Our boys confirmed a little bit of that can,” Franklin mentioned. “They simply dug in and began combating. They mentioned tonight we’re not going to get misplaced. We’re going to put our toes on the bottom, make an effort and attempt to rating some factors within the transition. We additionally took some pictures, which all the time helps your defensive power. He was happy with the power to answer some adversity. “
Foster led the Raiders with 14 factors and Aston Bates added 10.
Boardman completed the sport with an Eight-2 run with Spencer Smith developing massive with consecutive 3s to cease any likelihood of a heroic comeback from the Raiders. Smith completed with 11 factors and eight Boardman gamers scored.
