By Todd Traub
Leader sports editor
Harding Academy coach Brad Francis and senior Daniel Stevens were on the same page Wednesday night, which was a good thing for the Wildcats.
Stevens drove for the winning layup in the closing seconds as Harding Academy beat Star City 65-63 in the semifinals of the Beebe Holiday Classic at Badger Arena on Wednesday.
“It’s tough for any team to lose that game,” Francis said. “Both teams did some good things.”
With the score tied at 63, Stevens drew a charge and Sheldon Prater’s fifth foul to give Harding Academy possession with 8 seconds left. The Wildcats passed twice in the backcourt to get the ball to Stevens near the centerline, and he read the defense and Francis’ mind, as he split two defenders and charged in for his winning score.
“Our plan was to get it to halfcourt and call timeout,” Francis said. “And he got it going and I was just saying ‘Go, go, go,’ and hoping he was thinking the same thing and of course he was.”
Star City had just 1.9 seconds to get off a desperation three-pointer that fell far short as Harding Academy advanced to Thursday’s final against host Beebe.
“We feel like we have five guys on the floor that can all handle the ball which really helps us in that situation,” Francis said. “We work on that quite a bit because we see quite a bit of pressure.”
The biggest lead was 20-9 when Harding Academy’s Seth Keese made a three-pointer with 1:06 left in the first quarter. Otherwise it was a close game with six ties.
Star City led just twice, 61-60 when Corey Hellums scored with 2:07 left and 63-61 when Damar Reed hit a jumper from the high post with 50 seconds to go.
Harding Academy’s Marshal Price tied it with two free throws with 44 seconds remaining and, after calling timeout with 34.6 seconds left, Star City bled the clock down to 8 seconds before Prater committed his offensive foul that set up Stevens’ heroics.
“Daniel’s a senior; he’s our leader,” Francis said. “We wouldn’t have wanted it in anybody else’s hands right there. He did like a senior did and made a good decision and finished. He drew the charge that got us the ball back so he was big for us tonight in a lot of ways, a lot of places.”
Reed made a three-pointer to tie it 57-57 with 3:17 left but Keese responded with a three-pointer. Prater made two free throws to pull Star City within 60-59 with 2:38 to go and Harding Academy then gave the ball away on an over-and-back call leading to Hellums’ first go-ahead basket.
Harding Academy (8-2) led 42-33 when Stevens got a rebound and a putback with just over four minutes left in the third quarter. But Star City battled back to within 47-44 when Jemiel Thompson scored early in the fourth quarter and the Bulldogs stayed within six points the rest of the way.
“We had a couple of good runs and we never could just get over the hump and put them away,” Francis said. “They just kept battling and battling and hitting big shot after big shot.”
Will Francis led Harding Academy with 20 points, Lane Dailey scored 12 and Keese had 11. Stevens scored eight points, half on free throws.
Francis praised Keese, Harding Academy’s quarterback and the Leader offensive football player of the year. Keese missed last season after injuring his knee in a football playoff game and appeared to be back on the court with a vengeance.
“He’s just a physical presence,” Francis said. “He hits big shots, he’s strong, gets rebounds. I thought his presence just in the game, I’m not sure what his numbers were but his presence out there did well.”
Francis said it’s nice to have Keese back after playing without him last year.
“Lane Daily had to play so many minutes last year. He’s physically gotten a lot stronger and now both those guys don’t have to play quite so many minutes every night and Seth is just a competitor. He’s been in those situations whether it’s football or basketball, he thrives on competition and you can’t coach that.”
