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Pressed into action

Canton McKinley’s defense handled Harding

Tribune Chronicle / Joe Simon Warren G. Harding’s Mike Hughes dribbles up court against Canton McKinley’s Sam Williams in the Bulldogs’ 70-61 victory over Harding on Friday night. The loss snapped the Raiders’ 10-game winning streak.

CANTON — The plans were similar for Warren G. Harding and Canton McKinley going into their matchup at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse.

The Raiders were focused on stopping 1,000-point scorer Darryl Straughter, and the Bulldogs’ eyes were centered on Harding standout Lynn Bowden.

Oddly enough, it was everyone else who decided the game.

Ten players scored for Canton McKinley, which rallied from a first-quarter deficit and played what its coach said was one of the Bulldogs’ best games of the year in a 70-61 non-conference victory over the Raiders, who had their 10-game winning streak snapped.

Both Straughter and Bowden were stricken with early foul trouble and missed most of the second quarter, and that’s when the Bulldogs (13-8) made their run. They used a full-court press to slow down a Raider offense that had been humming and outscored Harding, 23-11, in the quarter.

Tribune Chronicle / Joe Simon Warren G. Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich, center, talks to his team during a timeout Friday in Canton.

“That (press) takes you out of your rhythm because there’s not a whole lot of stuff you can run against it,” said Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich, who gave credit to Marlin Richardson for playing well defensively against Slaughter, a major part of the gameplan. “And Bowden not playing for 6 minutes was a major problem.”

The Bulldogs never allowed Harding (14-7) to get closer than six after halftime, mainly because they dominated on the boards, holding a 39-20 rebounding edge. The press played a role as well. The Raiders scored 18 points in the first quarter and led, 18-13, but they were outscored 38-24 in second and third quarters.

Straughter didn’t score in the first half and finished with eight points. Bowden scored 14 and had four assists.

“One thing that really turned things around was Mr. Bowden with those fouls early on,” McKinley coach Rick Hairston said. “I don’t want to take anything away from them because that’s a nice high school basketball team and they’re well coached. They have players that can really hurt you. Going into it we wanted to make sure that at all times we knew where Mr. Bowden was and where Mikey Hughes was.”

They struggled to find Hughes, who hit six 3-pointers — three in the first quarter. He finished with a game-high 27 points and was the main reason for Harding’s early lead, but rebounding and McKinley’s ability to corral what seemed like every loose ball kept the Raiders from making a lengthy run.

Each time Harding got close, the Bulldogs answered with a big shot. They converted 4 of 7 conventional 3-point plays to overcome the Raiders shooting 9 of 19 from beyond the arc.

“They had to set a record for and-1s,” said Vlajkovich, who added that the lack of rebounding wasn’t a height or effort issue but more of a lack of focus. “I thought we fought like hell on the glass, but we did not block out. We were trying to go get it, and against a team like that, you can’t just go get it, you have to put a body on somebody. It was more of a mental discipline thing than it was an effort thing. We fought our butts off all night.”

The effort is part of the reason Vlajkovich wasn’t overly disappointed in the streak being snapped. The Raiders never lost their cool or looked frustrated despite being down 10 to 12 points for most of the second half. They pulled within 66-59 with 1:13 left in the game, but McKinley responded with another conventional 3-point play to seal the victory.

“We did some good things tonight,” Vlajkovich said. “Things just kind of went their way.”

Harding hosts Maple Heights (17-3) on Tuesday.

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