Freshman Jaden Hardy dazzles in debut, leads Coronado
For anyone else, Wednesday might be called a career day. But for freshman Jaden Hardy, who was making his high school debut, there’s no way to know what his career day might be.
If this is anything close to what Hardy will be in his career, Coronado boys basketball has a lot to look forward to.
Hardy scored a game-high 29 points and went to the line with his team down by two with 1.5 seconds left. He hit all three free throws to give the third-ranked Cougars a 59-58 victory over visiting Centennial.
“I had to put the icing on the cake,” Hardy said. “I knew it was going in.”
Hardy’s game-clinching free throws came seconds after he missed an opportunity to tie the score. He stepped to the line to shoot two free throws with 3.6 seconds left, but missed the first one, then intentionally missed the second. Centennial rebounded, called a timeout and stepped out of bounds on the in-bounds pass.
Coronado (1-0) quickly got the ball to Hardy — who had hit 5 of 8 from 3-point range — for the shot, and he was fouled. After he made all three shots, Centennial (0-1) had a last-ditch attempt to win, but the shot went wide right.
“I know you’re not going to believe me, I was not panicked,” Coronado coach Jeff Kaufman said. “I knew he was going to make those, I see him shoot all the time. I really wasn’t panicked.”
Hardy had Coronado’s first three field goals, all on 3-pointers, to stake the Cougars to an early lead. They led by 10 going into the fourth quarter before Centennial rallied.
The Bulldogs started the quarter on a 17-5 run, tied the score with 2:43 left and grabbed their first lead 31 seconds later. Centennial’s Ishon Hardin scored 13 of his team-high 24 points in the quarter, and the Bulldogs kept the lead until Hardy’s heroics.
“It’s really big for him to mature and do things like that,” Kaufman said. “First game, you’re at home, there’s always stuff to work out.”
Contact Justin Emerson at jeme
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