Poland's Gallo leads girls

She paced MahoningAll-Stars to a 59-48 win over Trumbull County.
By BILL SULLIVAN
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- The Poland High School girls basketball team didn't win the state championship this year, but along the way, Julie Gallo learned some pretty important lessons about life.
Wednesday night, at the Mahoning Valley Coaches Association All-Star game at Boardman High School, Gallo immediately thought of a previous Poland player after she was named Most Valuable Player on the White team.
The White squad, comprised of Mahoning County residents, used a rousing spurt in the middle of the game to defeat the Red team (Trumbull County) 59-48.
"Last year Tiffany Joseph of Poland got this," Gallo said while holding her MVP plaque. "I wanted to represent my school well, just like she did last year."
Gallo finished with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists.
"I think everyone on our team played real well and it was a lot of fun," Gallo said. "I was just trying to do my best and to have fun."
Despite falling behind 16-11 on a foul shot by the Red's Jenny Place (Badger), the White team continued to look for the fun Gallo spoke of.
Tied at halftime: When they found it, a lay-up by Nicole Vlajkovich (Canfield) off an assist by Crystal Schuler (South Range) left the score knotted at 29 at the break.
The White team opened the second half on a 14-0 spurt to assume a 43-29 margin and increased it to 49-32 on a jumper by Lori Patrone (Cardinal Mooney).
The Red team started the second half 2-for-16 shooting.
Gallo scored four points in the surge but four of her rebounds led to eight points.
Cherrell Triplett (Rayen) used her speed and court awareness to score seven of her team-high 11 points in the decisive push.
"It's fun to play against different people and have new competition," said Schuler, who teamed with Triplett on some impressive interior defense. "We came out in the first half and didn't play very well. We just wanted to have fun and we did in the second half."
Defensive credit: Winning coach Pat Pavlansky (Canfield) deflected credit to his assistant, Roy Nard (Mooney) who devised the stifling defense. "I think it's all due to Coach Nard. He did a super job of talking to the girls about how to play defense the second half."
Each team made 20 baskets but the Trumbull squad had 22 more misses (76 to 54). Place scored eight of her 13 points in the first half and Tiffany Hack (Mineral Ridge) added 10 points. Ashlee Russo (Boardman) tacked on eight points for the winners.
"Julie was awesome getting us started down low," Pavlansky said of Gallo. "As soon as we started getting the ball down low and getting some easier hoops, we played better on both ends of the floor."