HARRISON — Andy Marx enjoys being around his Harrison High School boys basketball team, and that’s always a good first step.
The Wildcats are hopeful about the 2025-26 campaign after going 9-14 last season and starting this year with competitive losses to Colerain and Sycamore.
“I think we’re very capable of having a winning record,” said Marx, in his 12th year at the HHS helm. “I think we’re tough enough to do it. I think we’re energetic enough to do it. I think we need to be smart.
“I love these guys. They’re all great kids. They’ve responded every time they’ve been challenged, so I think the prospects are excellent. We’ve got a young, talented team and some seniors to lead the way.”
Senior guard Tucker Ward is back after earning a Co-Player of the Year award in the Southwest Ohio Conference and an honorable-mention spot on the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association’s Division II All-Ohio team last season.
The SWOC has broken up for everything but football, meaning Harrison will be a basketball independent for the foreseeable future. Marx said it’s not a controllable from his end, so he’s just focused on fine-tuning his program.
“Our biggest goal is to win a district title,” Marx said. “I think the program’s really progressed, especially at the younger level. We’ve established a K-through-12 program, which was our goal, so that’s a big thing we’re really happy about.”
The 6-foot Ward averaged 16.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as a junior for the Wildcats, who returned their top five scorers this year. One of those players, 6-4 junior forward Justin Marx, won’t be available — he suffered a season-ending knee injury in October.
Andy Marx said he’s developing his program on the following three principles: Chase the 1 Percent (do the work, be a craftsman), Contagious Energy (toughness, daily competitive excellence, enthusiasm) and the Tao of We (team, teammate, self, humility, accountability, love, shared vision and purpose).
“Tuck’s our leader, and he’s really buying into our cultural blueprint,” Marx said. “He’s one of the most intense players I’ve ever coached. He brings it 110 percent every day. He does all the things we want.”
Ward will play the point at times, but Marx wants to get him off the ball a little more this season. Junior guard Brady Lawhon marked 5.8 points and 3.7 boards per game in 2024-25 and will handle some of the point-guard duties this year along with varsity newcomers Ryan and Derek Stigler, who are juniors.
“That spot will be by committee at times,” Marx said. “Tuck has to score for us and he’s been one of our better defenders this fall, so we want to free him up a little bit.”
Marx is expecting big things from Lawhon, Harrison’s football quarterback in the fall.
“He’s an incredibly heady basketball player,” Marx said. “He’s a tough, gritty defender, a great help-side defender and an excellent passer who understands how to move the ball as well as anybody I’ve ever coached. He’s a great finisher around the rim, and his shot has improved greatly.”
Senior forward Brody Mumfrey and senior guard Mitchell Mercurio are also returning players. Mumfrey is more of a defensive and rebounding guy, while Mercurio was the No. 2 scorer last year with a 7.3 average.
Junior Eli Kauffman and sophomore Christian Roether are 6-3 frontcourt players who have moved into contributing roles with the varsity. Marx described Roether as “very athletic and strong” and said he’ll likely be a tight end in college football down the road.
The Wildcats want to get up a good amount of 3-pointers and they have a lot of guys that can shoot it well, including Ward, Mercurio, the Stigler twins, Kauffman, Lawhon and sophomore forwards Colton Stegman and Dillon Witt.
Stegman, a transfer from Roger Bacon, can only play the first 11 games because of Ohio High School Athletic Association transfer rules.
“I’m big on high-percentage shots, and looking at our shot charts, the 3 is one of the highest percentage shots for us,” Marx said. “No. 1 is a free throw, so we want to be aggressive attacking the rim and trying to get fouls on the other team. The second-highest percentage shot is a layup, and the third is the corner 3 and the top-of-the-key 3. We’re trying to create a lot inside and out through penetration and through cutting. Our guys are pretty good at understanding what a good shot is, and we’re hunting those down.”
Marx said junior Nick Hrnyak “is our instant microwave defense and energy guy.” Sophomore Braylen Jouett and freshman Trey Fette are guards with promising futures.
“If you’re going to describe us, I’d say we’re fundamental and share the ball really well,” Marx said. “We are a motion-based team and a man-to-man team. I think we’ll be able to play in transition. Everybody seems to mesh, and I think we’re deeper than we’ve been in a few years.
“We’ve got some guys that are fast, but we want to play smart and play together. We like to press on offense, so we’ll do a lot of hard cutting with a lot of ball movement and try to wear the other team out. If you think of us as a boxer, we like to be a counterpuncher. We’re able to adapt to what other teams do and exploit that. So we want to be a jack-of-all-trades, but we want to be really, really good at guarding halfcourt and running halfcourt offense.”
TEAM INFORMATION
- Head Coach: Andy Marx (12th season)
- Assistants: Jarrod Lawhon, Aidan Leonard, Lucas Picklesimer, Conor Thomas
- OHSAA Classification: Division II
- 2024-25 Record: 9-14 overall, 3-3 SWOC (second place)
ROSTER
- Trey Fette — 5-9, freshman, guard
- Nick Hrnyak — 5-8, junior, guard
- Braylen Jouett — 5-9, sophomore, guard
- Eli Kauffman — 6-4, junior, forward
- Brady Lawhon — 6-0, junior, guard
- Justin Marx — 6-4, junior, forward
- Mitchell Mercurio — 5-10, senior, guard
- Brody Mumfrey — 6-2, senior, forward
- Christian Roether — 6-3, sophomore, forward
- Colton Stegman — 6-4, sophomore, forward
- Derek Stigler — 5-9, junior, guard
- Ryan Stigler — 5-9, junior, guard
- Tucker Ward — 6-0, senior, guard
- Dillon Witt — 6-2, sophomore, forward
SCHEDULE
- Saturday, Nov. 29 — Colerain 62, Harrison 55
- Tuesday, Dec. 2 — Sycamore 54, Harrison 45
- Friday, Dec. 5 — Northwest, 7:30 p.m.
- Monday, Dec. 8 — at Reading, 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 13 — South Dearborn (Ind.), 7:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, Dec. 16 — at Talawanda, 7:15 p.m.
- Friday, Dec. 19 — Indian Hill, 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 20 — at Beavercreek, 7:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, Dec. 23 — Milford, 2:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 27 — Little Miami, 6 p.m.
- Monday, Dec. 29 — at Mariemont, 6 p.m.
- *Saturday, Jan. 3 — at Batesville (Ind.) Invitational
- Tuesday, Jan. 6 — at Monroe, 7:15 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 10 — at Taylor, 7:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, Jan. 13 — Edgewood, 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 17 — Western Brown, 1:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 31 — East Central (Ind.), 7:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, Feb. 10 — at Ross, 7:15 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 13 — Lawrenceburg (Ind.), 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 14 — at Goshen, 7:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, Feb. 17 — West Clermont, 7:30 p.m.
*Two games at 10 a.m./noon and 4/6 p.m.
