Seniors help lead improved WGH girls team
CANFIELD — The Warren G. Harding Raiders girls basketball team had a few athletes participate in the Al Beach Classic at Canfield High School.
This pits the best senior talent from Trumbull and Mahoning County against Columbiana and Mahoning County. The White Team (Mahoning), led by Struthers’ staff, won the game over the Red Team (Trumbull), 78-49. Jackson-Milton’s Michaelina Terranova was named game MVP.
As the season began for the Raiders girls basketball team, there were a lot of question marks on the roster. With just three seniors, Toni Donaldson, Chiparis Alexander and Brayleonna Woods, a lot was left to underclassmen to step up and perform at a high level.
“It wasn’t too hard, but we had to be leaders and step up and talk to the girls,” Donaldson said. “We had so many injuries. If we didn’t have so many injuries, we probably would’ve made it further than we did. As a team, I feel like we did good. We could’ve done better but we did all right.”
Harding ended the year with a 14-10 record as it lost to Geneva in a sectional bracket final of the Division I Perry District.
For most of the season, when the Raiders won three games, they would lose two. When they won two games, they would lose one. Inconsistency with a young group is expected, but Harding had no issue with the way things went.
“The seniors kind of set the tone playing as team,” Harding coach Frank Caputo said. “All through summer, they were together and were like family. They kind of got the younger kids to buy into that. They got that tone going early, and that was nice. Chiparis was a leader by example. Bray was always going full speed at practice. Toni led by example as well, and stepped up even more when she got injured.”
Despite injuries, the Raiders were still able to reel off some nice wins over Lakeview and Youngstown East.
“It was nice being a leader and telling them what to do,” Woods said. “That’s what got us going even with a slow start. There was competition between the young girls but they played like they were older. We had a small crowd because people doubted us. That pushed us and got us going as a team.”
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