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Bowden’s 41 leads WGH past Maple Hts.

WARREN — It took overtime, but Warren G. Harding stormed past Maple Heights, 100-88, led by a 41-point performance by senior Lynn Bowden in a thriller Tuesday night.

The Raiders outscored the Mustangs 20-8 in the four-minute overtime.

“We score 39 points in the fourth quarter and overtime tonight and we scored 46 against Ursuline but that’s the beauty of it,” Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich said. “We play Ursuline and its this defensive minded, every possession matters game and then we get caught up in a race track tonight. But that’s great for us to be able to play at two different contrasting ways.”

With two timeouts in hand and 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Harding had a chance to win it. When asked if he could go back and use a timeout in that situation Vlajkovich quickly said no.

Bowden let the clock melt until under 10 second before driving to the lane, his shot fell just short of the rim and the Mustangs secured the rebound and called timeout with 4.2 seconds left.

“We learned our lesson at the first game of the year,” Vlajkovich said. “I got the ball in my best player’s hands. The game is tied and he’s going to win it for us and the worst that can happen is we go in overtime.”

A late heave from just inside halfcourt went well wide, causing over time tied at 80.

Neither team owned a lead greater than six points throughout regulation. Bowden changed that quickly, as the senior started overtime with a quick layup followed with a 3 from deep at the top of the key. He went on to score 10 of the next 15 Harding points, totaling 15 points in just four minutes as the Raiders pulled away for a double-figure victory.

“That’s a good team out there (Maple Heights),” Bowden said. “We made some mistakes but I think if we fixed that we pull away just a little bit there at the end. But in overtime I just put them on my back.”

Junior Mike Hughes may have been over shadowed by Bowden’s big night but the 6-foot-1 junior finished the night with 23 points and shooting 9 of 10 from the charity stripe. Joining them in double figures were senior Lynn Williams and sophomore Kemon’Dre Muhammad with 15 and 13 points apiece.

“I thought we had some great defensive possession and they had some guys make some pro-level shots. That was a good high school basketball game,” Vlajkovich said.

The Mustangs’ Fonse Hale had six 3-pointers on his way to 32 points on the night. Tyree Harris contributed 23 points. His 3 with 40 seconds to play in the fourth quarter tied the game at 80 for Maple Heights.

With this game marking the end of the regular season, the Raiders are hoping to use this momentum for their upcoming tournament game against Kent Roosevelt on March 1.

“The last couple of years after conference play is over we try to beef up that out of league play to leave a couple good games down the stretch,” Vlajkovich said. “We just try and give ourselves that tournament feel and competition.”

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