Poland wins in overtime again, edging Fitch, 53-47

Boardman rallied past Chaney 69-53 in the other game.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
Vindicator Correspondent
AUSTINTOWN -- For the second time in two nights, the Poland Bulldogs captured victories in overtime at the Austintown Fitch Christmas Tournament.
The Bulldogs outscored host Fitch 8-2 in overtime to pull out a 53-47 win in the nightcap of the tournament's second night of action.
On Tuesday, Poland defeated Boardman 55-49 with the extra period.
In the opening game Thursday night, Boardman rallied in the second half to turn back Chaney 69-53.
Overtime effort
The Bulldogs (4-2) got a 3-point basket from Chris Lovell and Poland made 5 of 7 free throws in overtime to turn back the snake-bitten Falcons, who had lost their two previous games on last second shots.
"It's amazing," said Poland coach Ken Grisdale. "We're a young team with only one player with varsity experience yet we keep getting better as these games go along.
"Defensively we fought and fought and fought and we were finally able to come back and pull it out."
The win was bittersweet for Grisdale, who is best friends with Austintown Fitch coach Roger Day, who was a former player of the Poland coach.
"As good as I feel for our players right now, I feel equally as bad for Roger and his team," Grisdale said. "Roger is doing a great job with Fitch but they've run into a bad stretch.
"Fitch has a great player [James Wallace] and a good supporting cast that makes them a tough team to face."
Rallied to force overtime
The Bulldogs trailed in the game by six points late in the third quarter before rallying to tie the game in regulation and force the overtime session.
Keane Boyd's free throw with 1:13 left in the third quarter gave the Falcons a 37-31 lead.
Poland pulled to within 37-33 on a Lou Coppola basket. Seconds later, Lovell hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the lead to one-point.
Fitch went back up by four points 42-38 midway through the fourth quarter on a Jon Stockman basket but the Falcons struggled at the foul line in the period and couldn't put the Bulldogs away.
Fitch was just 2 of 6 from the line in the final quarter.
Wallace was the scoring leader for the Falcons with 14 points and the senior grabbed 10 rebounds while Tom Hahn added 13 points.
"The key to the game was stopping Wallace from having a big game," Grisdale said. "I think we did a decent job of holding him in check."
Poland, meanwhile, got a big game from its big man. Coppola, a 6-7 junior forward had 18 points while teammates Daniel Bennett and Dom Schneider helped out with strong board play on the inside.
Poland's guards, Lovell scored 15 points while sophomore Anthony DeFelice added 9 points.
Boardman's quick start
In the opening game, Boardman (5-4) outscored Chaney 23-6 to open up a 61-37 lead before cruising to the easy victory.
The Spartans were coming off a loss in the opening night of the tournament while Chaney (1-8) was fresh off their first win of the season on a last second shot by Patrick Allen.
In this game, Boardman's defense was too much for the Cowboys.
"You always want to bounce back," said Boardman coach Jared Cardillo. "We've been on a two-game slide but the kids stepped up tonight."
Shut down Fitzgerald
The Spartans held Chaney's leading scorer Antonio Fitzgerald to 15 points after the junior scored 31 in the win over Fitch.
"I think our assistant coaches did a great job of preparing us for this game," Cardillo said. "Andy Vlajkovich, Dave Spires and Jim Bennett made all the adjustments for this game."
Offensively, Boardman placed nine players in the scoring column.
Junior Eric Johnson got a start and scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds. Jon Kocon added 16 points while Dan Kubala had nine points and five rebounds.
Ed Deluca also had a good night with eight points and nine rebounds.
For Chaney, Kory Jackson had 10 points and seven rebounds while Victor Toney came off the bench to score nine points.