Harding wins 1,000th game

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Coach Steve Arnold has won 79 percent of his games — tops at Harding.

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

WARREN — Warren Harding High boys basketball coach Steve Arnold took out a black T-shirt, flipped it over and pointed to the names on the back: Lafferty, Kemp, Boyd, Gysegem, Kovach, Lariccia, Bubba.

"This is a proud program, full of great tradition," said Arnold, whose name wasn't mentioned on the shirt, but whose record stands above all the former Raider head coaches. "A lot of great coaches and a lot of great players."

On Tuesday night, that tradition took center stage as the Raiders defeated visiting Mooney 88-38 to win the school's 1,000th game.

"It feels pretty good for our team to be recognized around the state," Arnold said.

Arnold also improved his record to 93-25, a 79 percent winning percentage that ranks first all-time at Harding. And the craziest part is, this team has the potential to be the best he's coached.

"We can be very good," Arnold said. "As good as we can be, we can sometimes be very bad. That comes from not being focused for the duration of the game."

Arnold has spent much of his practice time this season training his team to stay focused for four quarters, running drills when his players are tired and spotting the junior varsity team points during intra-squad scrimmages.

Although Tuesday's result was never in doubt, Arnold wanted to see if the Raiders (5-0) would stay focused against an overmatched opponent.

They did.

"I think we did that tonight for the first time," Arnold said. "I was pleased with that."

Chris Henderson scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Harding, which has also beaten East, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, Cleveland St. Ignatius and Farrell this season.

Henderson, along with Desmar Jackson and Mike Anderson, were suspended for the Farrell game and none of the three started Tuesday night.

"This season has been sort of a roller coaster through five games," Arnold said. "Our last game we had some disciplinary problems and we're trying to avoid that.

"I talked with the kids in the summer about dealing with adversity. You know at some point in the season you're going to have to deal with it. The question is, how do you deal with it?"

Guard Sheldon Brogdon, who scored 30 points against Farrell, had 14 points and four assists in the win, while senior Damian Eargle had 10 points and seven rebounds.

"Brogdon is phenomenal — he's one of the best guards I've seen in a long time," Mooney coach Steve Leslie said. "He's the one who gets them going."

While Harding is staking its claim as the area's best team, Mooney (1-1) is just trying to improve. Three of its starters were on the football team, which was still playing 10 days ago. (Harding, incidentally, lost to Mooney 49-0 in football and a few observers wondered if the Raiders would try to equal the feat.)

"We're going to get better; Harding will make you get better," said Leslie, who was encouraged by his team's effort throughout the loss. "You don't like to lose, obviously, but one of the reasons I know we'll get better is by the way these guys work."

Senior forward L.J. Sutton, the team's best player, had five points, three rebounds and two steals to lead Mooney, which fell behind by as many as 56 points. Nick Flaviano added six points.

"Harding is very talented," said Leslie. "We knew going in they were a very good team."

scalzo@vindy.com

Wednesday, December 12, 2007