BASKETBALL Shurilla's hot night vexes Struthers; Poland wins 77-49

Lou Coppola and Luke Blangero added 10 points each for the Bulldogs.
STRUTHERS -- Poland High rode the hot shooting of 6-foot-1 junior guard Jim Shurilla, who scored 30 points, to break away for a 77-49 victory over Struthers Tuesday night in a Metro Athletic Conference boys basketball game.
Poland (4-0, 3-0 MAC) put on a clinic on team play, as they had 35 rebounds to 27 for Struthers and only turned the ball over three times in the first half and 10 times in the game.
Struthers (3-3, 0-2) led twice in the game, 2-0 after a Jose Martinez field goal, and 10-9 at the 3:32 mark of the first quarter on Dave Mathews' 3-pointer.
Shurilla, who had Poland's first two baskets of the game, had 11 points in the first quarter, which ended with Poland ahead 21-13.
Shurilla had 10 more points in the second period as the Bulldogs took a 38-21 lead into the intermission.
Shots 'were going down'
"Some games the shots don't go down and the coach tells me to keep shooting," said Shurilla after the game. "Tonight they were going down."
He made his first seven shots from the field and was 7-of-9 in the first half, which included 4-of-5 on 3-pointers and he was 4-of-4 at the foul line.
"I feel good about the way we played tonight," said Poland coach Ken Grisdale, "and Jimmy did a great job just when we needed him to get going and be the kind of scorer he was last season."
The Bulldogs' leading scorer this season, Chad Fender, had only two field goals and nine points, but his overall game was on display as he set up Shurilla, Lou Coppola and Luke Blangero with eight assists.
Blangero, a 6-2 senior, had eight rebounds, while Coppola, a 6-7 sophomore, had six, and Daniel Bennett off the bench had seven boards.
Coppola and Blangero had 10 points each, with Blangero hurting the Wildcats on several occasions with putbacks on second and third effort situations.
Dominant effort
Poland's 66-43 lead in the fourth quarter was the largest of the game.
"Poland played extremely well and Shurilla took charge for them at the right time of the game," said Struthers coach John Corey.
"We tried to mix it up defensively, but with [Shurilla] on fire it was difficult to get anything to work. We also didn't do a good job of boxing out on the boards."
Jim Sodeman, a 6-0 junior guard who only had a first half field goal, finished the game with 13 points. Alan Daniels had nine points for the Wildcats and Chris Kadvan came off the bench with eight rebounds.
"Jimmy Sodeman really came to play as he competed for the full 32 minutes tonight," said Corey.