Staff photo / Brian Yauger Howland’s Ben Bronson drives to the basket Tuesday night against Warren G. Harding. Bronson scored a team-high 12 points in the Tigers’ 42-41 win.

WARREN — Anytime Howland and Harding meet up, things get interesting.

Tuesday’s meetup on the hardwood was no exception as the game went down to the wire.

The Raiders rallied back with some well-timed shots from the charity stripe, but fell just short in a 42-41 Tigers victory.

After a rough start to the new year, that saw Howland on the wrong end of six-straight contests — four of which were decided by five or less points — the Tigers closed the month of January on a three-game winning streak picking up wins over East, Boardman and now Harding in the process.

While it wasn’t an easy win by any means, coach Dan Bubon is glad his kids appear to have gotten back on the rails.

“We made some really, really bad mistakes with the ball in the last two minutes. I bet we turned over three or four times,” Bubon said. “We’re just trying to either get a layup or get fouled, but credit to our kids because we were on a six-game losing streak in early January and three of those were literally in the last minute.

“It was like ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen now? What’s going to happen now?’ But last week, we righted the ship. We beat East, we beat Boardman, got a little momentum back and it was great for them to finish a game like that. We just never give up and competed.”

With the tournament fast approaching, playing in close games gets more and more important. While the wins are nice, the experience of getting tested is what can make the difference in the end.

“Every tournament loss I can remember in my life doing this 28 years was a close loss,” Bubon said. “You remember those close ones, they eat at you. The more times you’re in these battles, you’re not going to win them all and sometimes just a bad bounce is going to go against you but the more times you’re in them, the more comfortable you are in them, the more you can really play comfortably in the last two minutes of the game and try to try to pull the win out. We’ve been battle tested. We really have been battle-tested against good teams too, so hopefully that bodes well for us.”

It doesn’t get any easier for the Tigers (9-8) however. Their next week of games consist of contests against Ursuline, Kennedy and Canfield. No better way to get ready for the tournament according to Bubon.

“Our schedule for the next few weeks is really good with Ursuline, Kennedy and Canfield.Those are three of the best teams in the area right now,” Bubon said. “Like I’ve said before, if you play for Howland, you’re going to compete to the end. Chances are you’re not going to win them all, but you’re going to compete against the best we have in the area and let the chips fall where they may. Do the best you can, be proud of your effort and I was proud of our efforts tonight.”

Harding falls to 10-7 on the year. While not the outcome they wanted, Raiders coach Keelyn Franklin echoed the sentiments of his rival coach, mentioning that with the tournament coming up, getting a lesson is more important.

“I would much rather lose a game like this as opposed to a game where we’re not in it,” Franklin said. “We’ve had some of those issues. You never want to lose a game, but you’re able to go back and look at film, see what you could have done differently. Not only the players but as a staff too to put ourselves in a better position to win the game. Anytime you lose a tight game like this, like I just told the guys, ‘It’s a loss, but it can be a lesson if you learn from it. If not, then it’s just a loss.’ We’ll learn from it and it’ll turn into a lesson.”

The Raiders look to rebound on the road against Austintown Fitch.