Practice time at the line pays off for Poland

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
POLAND -- Poland basketball guard Ben Umbel was money at the foul line Friday night against Boardman.
The junior made nine consecutive free tosses in the fourth quarter before missing with just 38 seconds left in the game.
By then, the Bulldogs had safely built a 50-42 lead and went on to put the Spartans away 52-43 in the final game of the Poland Holiday Basketball Classic.
Umbel's free throw prowess was just part of Poland's impressive 18 of 22 effort at the line in the final quarter of the contest and 22 of 27 for the entire game.
"I'm not known for my free throw shooting," said Umbel. "We've been spending a lot of time practicing them this week. We had to make 10 in a row before we could leave the gym after practice.
"I just felt comfortable shooting [free throws] out there. I didn't even think about the game being on the line."
Streak
The Bulldogs made eight free throws in a row (four by Umbel, two by Charlie Carchedi and two by Anthony DeFelice) after Boardman had rallied to tie the score at 41-41 with 2:45 left in the game.
The extra practice paid off said Poland coach Ken Grisdale who said that poor free throw shooting has plagued the team and was a factor in last Friday's loss to Campbell.
"That's outstanding," Grisdale said of the fourth-quarter free throw success. "I think the extra practice made us mentally tougher at the line tonight.
"The guys came through in a tough situation tonight. They shot the ball with a lot of confidence."
Umbel finished with a game-high 16 points. Carchedi added 13 points while making 5 of 6 free tosses and DeFelice made 6 of 7 charity shots for nine points.
The two teams battled closely through the better part of three quarters before Poland closed out the third quarter on a 7-2 run to lead 28-20 heading into the final period.
Poland opened up a 32-23 lead on two free throws by Carchedi before the Spartans turned up the offense.
Closing the gap
Sophomore Ryan Pesta drilled three 3-pointers in the final period and Raj Sheth added another which gave Boardman a lead of 38-36 with 3:48 left.
The teams traded baskets and free throws until the Bulldogs broke away from the 41-41 tie.
"I thought both teams played really well," Boardman coach Jared Cardillo said. "We challenged our team to come out and play aggressive. I felt like we did that today and offensively we did some things we haven't done all year.
"We just weren't able to maintain that to the end."
Pesta led the Spartans in scoring with 12 points while freshman J.T. Moore added 10 points and five rebounds.
Poland also shot the ball very well, making 50 percent of its shots from the field and from beyond the three-point line.