Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Austintown Fitch’s EJ Giles puts up a layup over Warren G. Harding’s Elijah Phillips on Friday night in Warren.

WARREN — Playing for a fallen teammate, Warren G. Harding played with a renewed sense of vigor in the fourth quarter against Austintown Fitch on Friday night.

Despite their best efforts, the Raiders’ inspired comeback attempt fell just short, as the Falcons held on late for a 51-45 victory over their All-American Conference rivals to sweep the season series.

“You gotta give them credit for not quitting,” Fitch coach Brian Beany said. “They came after us. We made some things harder than what it should have been, but that’s what pressure does. It puts you in spots that maybe you start to become a little bit more panicky with the ball. But in those situations, you just gotta slow it down, trust yourself, trust your teammates, make the right pass and attack on the other end and take what they give you.”

With Fitch (10-4, 4-1 AAC) leading 28-14 with 5:58 to go in the third quarter, Harding star Xavier Clark hit the floor hard after going up for a rebound. It was a scary scene in the gym, as coaches and school trainers worked to stabilize Clark’s head and neck on the floor.

Hushed silence overcame the gym for almost 25 minutes until paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. With assistance, Clark slowly got off the floor and on the stretcher.

As he was wheeled out of the gym, coaches and players from both teams surrounded him to make sure he was OK. Harding coach Keelyn Franklin provided an update on Clark’s status after the game.

“He’s going to be fine. It is a concussion,” Franklin said. “All his body parts are moving. Obviously when you talk about head and neck injuries, we were afraid of that. He’s at the hospital right now and he has a concussion, but he’ll be fine. He’ll be okay.”

Shaken by what happened to Clark, Harding (5-8, 0-5 AAC) struggled the rest of the period, as Fitch built a 41-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But during the timeout between quarters, the Raiders composed themselves and came alive to start the fourth.

Sparked by a handful of threes from Scoop Carson, Khi Evans and Elijah Phillips, Harding blitzed the Falcons with their press and went on a 20-6 run to get back into the game.

“I think our guys just wanted to have a brother’s back,” Franklin said. “I think that they felt like the play could have been prevented, so they just banded together and they wanted to get that one for Xavier. They just felt like that was something that shouldn’t have happened. So they just wanted to have his back and get the win for him.”

Harding came all the way back and cut the deficit to two points with about a minute left. Myles Miller went to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game, but missed both free throws.

Junie Higgs and Brady Evans each knocked down a pair of free throws, as the Falcons went 4-for-4 at the charity stripe in the final minute to fend off Harding’s furious rally and pull out the victory.

“Don’t give up and just fight through it,” Beany said. “Like I always tell them, it’s never going to be smooth in a game. No one plays a perfect game, I don’t coach a perfect game. It’s going to be highs and lows, but what do you do when you get to the lows? You fight through it. Don’t let it affect you to the point where it becomes a detriment.”

Fitch built its lead over the first three quarters by getting Harding out of rhythm offensively with its 2-3 zone.

The Raiders were just 5-for-21 from the floor in the first half against it, as they tried to find a way to score.

“The zone did what it was designed to do. It made us settle for jump shots,” Franklin said. “When we did get the ball into the high post or the dead spots, sometimes we hesitated and they were able to rotate. Then we didn’t finish well when we did get the ball where we wanted to. So I thought the zone definitely gave us some problems.”

Evans also gave the Falcons a scoring boost in the first half, scoring 12 of his 17 points before halftime, while EJ Giles took over in the second half by scoring all 13 of his points for Fitch.

“It’s a balanced group. On any night, someone can lead us,” Beany said. “So I wasn’t surprised it was those two. Losing EJ at the end hurt from just another ball-handling aspect. But it’s never easy to play here, and the kids found a way to win.”

Miller led the Raiders with 10 points, while Evans and Carson combined for 16 of Harding’s points in the second half.

Fitch returns to action on Tuesday night when it hosts Canfield at 7 p.m., while Harding travels to Hickory (Pa.) today for a border showdown at 3:30 p.m.