Poland falls to 'the best'

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
COLUMBUS -- With three minutes remaining in Thursday's Division II state semifinal boys basketball game, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary senior LeBron James stopped scoring.
He had just hit a breakaway, two-handed reverse dunk -- "posterizing" Poland junior Neil Harris in the process -- and putting an exclamation point on a dominating Irish victory.
"I was looking down at the court trying to find the springs on the floor," Harris said, smiling. "I didn't know what to do. You couldn't defend them."
Season ends: The Bulldogs stayed relatively close in the first half, but wore down in the second as James scored 32 points to lead the Irish to a 76-36 victory in front of a record crowd of 18,371 at the Schottenstein Center.
"You've got to pick your poison," Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. "Do you let him make dunks or do you make him take deep shots?
"He's the best I've ever seen. Maybe the best we'll ever see."
James hit from inside and outside Thursday, scoring SVSM's first six points on jump shots. The Irish junior had 24 points in the first half as Poland trailed 38-22. Things fell apart in the third quarter as SVSM outscored the Bulldogs 23-7.
"[Poland] played hard and gave us all we wanted for the first few minutes," Irish coach Dru Joyce said. "I wasn't pleased with our first-half effort, but I was very pleased with our second-half effort."
SVSM will play St. Bernard Roger Bacon, which set a record Thursday for largest margin of victory in a state tournament game by beating Columbus Beechcroft, 82-31. St. Henry had the previous record with a 93-45 victory over Richmond Dale Southeastern in 1990. Former Ohio State quarterback Bobby Hoying played for St. Henry that season.
Bulldog scorers: Senior David McGarry led Poland (23-3) with 14 points and Jamie Dunn added nine points and five rebounds.
Dunn, the two-time Metro Athletic Conference player of the year, guarded James for much of the game.
"When [James] was hitting 3-pointers -- he had four -- I just told myself, 'Well, at least he's the best player in high school basketball,' " Dunn said. "When I look back on this when I'm older, I'll be able to tell my kids I went up against LeBron."
Harris had team-highs with eight rebounds and four assists. Junior Bill Bartos added seven points.
The Irish shot 53.4 percent from the field (31-of-58) and held Poland to 28.3 percent from the field (15-of-53). James made 14-of-21 from the field and had nine rebounds, six assists and six blocked shots.
"I knew they were going to back off of me," James said. "When I hit the first 15-footer, I started getting pretty confident. I caught fire and I was going to keep shooting."
Irish junior Romeo Travis added 18 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Travis has taken on a larger role for the Irish over the past month.
"I think I've been more aggressive," Travis said. "I've found a mean streak in me."
Top team: The Irish (24-3) were ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press poll and won back-to-back Div. III championships the past two years. James has won the last two Mr. Basketball awards in Ohio. The Irish have not lost to an Ohio team in the past three years.
Poland's other state tournament appearance came in 1972. Grisdale has coached Poland's only two district championship teams in the past 30 years. The other came in 1996.
"This has been great," Grisdale said. "We had an opportunity to live a dream and this has been a dream for us. We're one of the four best teams in Div. II."
scalzo@vindy.com