MARION — Marion Harding picked up a win on the basketball court, but according to first-year boys coach Luke Samples, the Presidents have been winning all season.
“It’s more important to me to build the culture. I think they are doing everything right,” he said. “The scoreboard doesn’t always reflect these kids winning in the classroom and winning in the community and winning in practice. These kids have bought in. I think they are coming together exactly how I planned.”
The Prexies made it show up on the scoreboard, too, after making the quick trip to Pleasant Dec. 23. They came away with a 47-33 victory in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference.
The Presidents did it by overcoming a slow start, scoring just two points in the first six minutes and trailing 10-5 after the first quarter.
“We’re still trying to learn that playing together and taking a little extra time on offense is the way we’re going to score. In the first quarter, you saw us come out and try to play 1-on-5 because they’re in a zone. We’re just trying to hoop it up, and that’s not how you do it,” Samples said.
When Harding was moving the ball, reversing the court and getting players moving against the zone, the team gradually found some rhythm and scoring.
“We found a group that is willing to run offense for more than five seconds,” he said. “We want to get the ball moving on both sides of the floor, but that takes a lot of time to get good at. We looked better at it today.”
Pleasant still led 15-13 with less than two minutes to go in the half when Caleb Metz hit a 3-pointer for Harding that put them up for good. The Prexies led 18-15 at halftime, then built the lead to 25-17 midway through the third quarter and 31-19 with less than three minutes left in the period. The Spartans didn’t threaten the rest of the way.
Metz and Landen Keller each had 13 points for Harding (3-5, 2-3), while Ray J Scott-Harbolt added nine points.
Samples liked how his team bottled up Evan Sickmiller and Collin Mattix, holding the two Spartans to a combined 11 points. Avery Hamper led Pleasant (1-5, 0-4) with 10 points and Colin Jordan had eight.
“When teams are more physical than us, we struggle so badly to score,” Pleasant coach Ben Snively said. “That’s on me to figure something out. I’ve got to be able to put kids in position to where they can score. I think they hurt us a little rebounding again, but in the end, it comes down to they are just more physical than us. They get after us.
“We struggle with that aspect of the game no matter who it is we’re playing. Unfortunately that’s a lot of nights in this league.”
Nevertheless, Snively said he still believes in his team.
“I’m really proud to be their coach,” he said. “We have a great community. I don’t have any problems with these kids whatsoever. It hasn’t started out the way we wanted, but I believe we’re going to get this thing turned around. We have a couple games here before the (2026 portion of the season) that I think we can get and get it going in the right direction for the new year.”
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion Harding boys hoops ‘coming together exactly how planned’
Reporting by Rob McCurdy, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
