Staff photo / Preston Byers Warren G. Harding’s Azarriah Phillips looks for a teammate during Wednesday’s win vs. Austintown Fitch in Warren.

WARREN — Warren G. Harding finished the regular season Wednesday doing what it has spent most of the last several months doing: winning.

Although the second half left much to be desired, the Raiders, playing as the Panthers for their regular-season and All-American Athletic Conference (AAC) finale, put more than enough space between themselves and rival Austintown Fitch before halftime to earn a 55-45 victory.

“[I’m] pretty happy. We came out strong in the first half. Really happy with our energy,” Harding head coach Frank Caputo said.

The Falcons surprised the Raiders with a strong start. After surrendering the first basket, Fitch scored eight straight points, six from a pair of Amiya Harris triples, to take an 8-2 lead in the first three minutes.

Harding, though, took over from there.

Threes by Cayden Reed and Akeelha Barnes tied the game at 8 and simultaneously sparked the most consequential run of the evening. The Raiders finished the period by scoring 12 of the final 15 points, and they only got more dominant in the second quarter.

Following a made Fitch free throw 13 seconds into the period, Harding rattled off 19 unanswered points as part of the 31-4 run it began in the first quarter. The one-sided scoring, a result of multiple Falcon turnovers, effective Harding transition offense and even better shooting, allowed the Raiders’ lead to swell to 21 before Harris made a three and ended the Fitch drought. Harding ultimately took a 39-17 lead into halftime.

“We switched it up on defense,” Caputo said of the run. “We started out in a zone, then put it back in our man-to-man, and we upped our tempo a little bit. … And once [our girls] hit one, they get fired up. We hit a couple in a row, and that really got us rolling.”

The Falcons, seemingly on their way to the most lopsided loss of the season, desperately needed big changes to come in the second half.

Kaliana Ray began the third quarter with a three-point play, and Fitch’s press defense kept the Raiders scoreless as the Falcons’ offense tried to find a groove. Although Harding earned its first points of the quarter more than halfway through the period, Fitch limited the Raiders to just five in the entire period, at the end of which the Falcons had cut their deficit from 22 to 14.

“Every time we play them, they always do a really great job with their press,” Caputo said. “It affected us a lot down the stretch there.”

With back-to-back baskets to begin the fourth, Fitch momentarily got within eight of Harding. But a pair of free throws for Sanaa Pitts not only put Harding back ahead by 10, but also began a two-way procession to the foul line.

In the fourth, as the physicality and frustration grew on both sides, 25 combined free throws were attempted, compared to five combined made field goals, two of which came in the final 40 seconds of the game.

Fitch, which took the minority of the foul shots, still outscored Harding 15-11 in the quarter, but much more had to be done to take the Raiders down Wednesday.

“We told them, the first three minutes of the third quarter were extremely important. Unfortunately, it’s a big run on their side and not ours,” Caputo said. “We couldn’t get enough rolling in the beginning of that third quarter. We wanted to pull away, but they tightened it back up, so we had to keep playing hard.”

Barnes scored a game-high 24 points, and her teammate, Ja’Leah Provitt, added 11 of her own. Bower and Harris each scored in double figures for Fitch, finishing with 15 and 11, respectively.

Harding (14-6, 5-3 AAC) finished the regular season having won 13 of its final 16 games after a 1-3 start to the year. The Raiders are set to host Massillon Perry next Wednesday in their playoff opener.

Conversely, Fitch (8-14, 3-5 AAC) enters its postseason home matchup vs. North Royalton having lost its last three games by double digits.

“This is definitely something you can build on,” Fitch head coach Dan Horacek said. “We can build on this in our next four or five practices while getting ready for North Royalton, who’s a really good, upcoming team. They play a lot like Harding does, so this was a very good test for us tonight.”