Contributed By Noah Ricks

HOWLAND CENTER, OH – It was a highly anticipated rivalry that both teams needed to win to stay on track in the AAC, but it was Warren Harding who held the edge, holding off their fierce rival in the Howland Tigers by a final score of 61-59 on Friday night. This was considering the fact that the Raiders did not even play a game in three weeks due to rising COVID-19 cases amid the ongoing pandemic. Coach Keelyn Franklin was excited that they came off the hiatus with the nail biting victory over their big rival.

“It’s huge, it’s huge. I mean anytime you’re out for that amount of time, you know, to come out and get a win, that first game back is huge, especially a conference game for one, and against Howland, who is, you know, our rival, so it’s huge for us moving forward.”

Harding had a strong start to the contest with an 11-6 lead, but Howland came storming back and ended the first quarter on a 9-4 run to be locked at 15-15 at the end of the period. In the second period, Howland continued a big stretch to go on top 24-17 with the help of guys like Alex Henry, who would end up leading the Tigers with 19 as a young sophomore. Harding used a strong transition game and aggressive running towards the ball to help end the first half strong. They went on a 15-5 run, which included a Jacob Lawrence buzzer beater from downtown, to end the half with a 32-29 lead.

The Raiders used the second half to make Howland work from behind. A key goal for the Raiders was to lock down Howland’s best scorer Anthony Massucci, who was held to single-digits until the fourth quarter. It was an even third-quarter with 13 points by each side as it was 45-42 at the end of three. As Howland came back to tie the game up at 52-52, Harding would use a mid-range jumper from Lawrence and a putback to go on top 56-52. There was still a ton of fight left in the Tigers as Henry hit a crucial three-pointer and Massucci connected on two important free throws to put Howland up by one. Coach Franklin paid attention to the amount of adversity that his team had to endure.

“I just told them we’ve got to stay locked in. I mean a lot of times when adversity hits, we kind of go in the opposite direction that we should and we kind of strayed away from each other and come apart instead of together, and I think that’s what we did tonight, is we kind of just banded together when adversity hit and understood that we had to continue to get stops and try to take care of the ball on the other end and get as many good looks as possible. Staying together was key.”

The Raiders were not able to finish off without the heroics of Tyriq Ivory. He was called on to shoot free throws for Harding in the final minute of the contest. He would make clutch shots, which was vital in the two-point victory. Franklin really appreciated how he stepped up down the stretch.

“Tyriq, he was great tonight. He’s one of those athletes, when he gets going, he’s tough to deal with. He’s a dynamic type of athlete, so to see him have that success wasn’t a surprise to me. It’s something that we expect from him, but I was glad to see him have that success for sure.”

The Raiders with the win will improve to 3-4 on the year as they start off their conference slate with a 1-0 mark. They will play another pivotal conference game on Tuesday as they will head back home to take on another fierce rival in the Austintown Fitch Falcons. Coach Franklin is aware of the intensity that will show up in the Harding gym on Tuesday night and will prepare heavily.

“We’ll watch some film tomorrow. We’ll get up in the morning, watch some film, get some shots up. We’re familiar with each other, we played each other, I don’t know, maybe seven or eight times in the summer, so I think they know us well, we know them well, so it’s going to come down to who’s the tougher team and who executes better.”

The Tigers will drop to 6-5 overall, having dropped their third straight after a 6-2 start. They will start their grueling conference schedule with an 0-2 start. They will stay home on Tuesday as they will look to snap their losing skid in a non-conference outing with Louisville.

YSN’s Noah Ricks got a chance to talk to winning coach Keelyn Franklin following tonight’s contest. You can watch the full interview below.

Postgame Interview With Keelyn Franklin: