Harding’s early burst sparks maroons in win
CHAMPAIGN — Moline guard Brock Harding plays with style and confidence. It has always been that way. “He probably doesn’t remember, but freshman year I gave him the car keys,” Maroons coach Sean Taylor said. “I said, ‘You are driving us,’ and he has driven us for four years.”
Harding hit the gas hard right at tipoff. The Iowa recruit scored 14 points in the first 4:30. It was the only offensive explosion of the game and gave Moline all the cushion required for a 50-36 win Friday against Downers Grove North in the Class 4A semifinals at State Farm Center.
Harding finished with 21 points.
“The whole week everyone has been telling me to shoot the ball, that we are gonna live with you shooting threes,” Harding said. “I came out and hit that first one. Once you get the first one, it is kind of just up from there. They guys got me the ball where I needed.”
Moline led 21-11 with 6:21 left in the second quarter. The Maroons didn’t manage another field goal until Owen Freeman’s dunk with 1:02 left in the third quarter. That’s more than 13 minutes of play without a basket.
“Ugly is in the eye of the beholder,” Taylor said. “We were guarding like crazy and rebounding, so I thought it was a beautiful team. We weren’t scoring, but we were guarding and rebounding. You might think that’s ugly, but there are a lot of teams that hang their hat on that.”
Moline (34-3) still led 32-27 after three quarters. Downers Grove North (32-4) managed just one basket and five points in the third quarter.
“We just weren’t hitting today,” Trojans junior Jack Stanton said. “It was just an off shooting day for us.”
Downers Grove North was 6-for-25 from three-point range, 13-for-40 from the field.
“We sure didn’t score as many points as we would have liked to,” Trojans coach Jim Thomas said. “They got out to a pretty quick start, and we trailed the entire game. Hats off to them.”
Stanton led Downers Grove North with 19 points. Max Haack and George Wolkow each added six.
Expectations have been sky-high for Moline since 6-10 Iowa recruit Owen Freeman transferred in from Bradley-Bourbonnais over the summer. Freeman had nine points and eight rebounds and ripped open his jersey like Superman late in the third quarter.
“We all did our role,” Freeman said. “We locked in on defensive rebounding. I was able to sit in the paint and block and change shots. My teammates made my job really easy.”
Moline will face Benet in the Class 4A state championship game Saturday night.
The Maroons have never won a state title and last played for the title in 1951.
“We aren’t always the most athletic team on the court, but we are the most skilled team,” Taylor said. “We can shoot, pass, drive. We have really good skill guys, and on top of that we have great heart.”