Poland pressure wears out Fitch

The unbeaten Bulldogs struggled early before
winning 80-60.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — Their frenetic pressure defense carried the Poland Bulldogs to an 80-60 triumph over Austintown Fitch Thurday night in the Holiday Basketball Classic at Chaney High, but things didn’t go according to script for the first few minutes.

The Falcons (1-6) trailed just 8-6 to the undefeated Bulldogs with 2:10 remaining in the first quarter. Poland (6-0) stretched the lead to 15-8 at the quarter break, but Fitch got back to within 17-13 early in the second period.

Less than a minute later, Poland led 24-13 and the Falcons never got closer than nine points. The Bulldogs led 42-24 at halftime and 65-40 after three quarters.

The Holiday Classic continues Saturday with Poland facing Boardman at 6 p.m. and Chaney playing host to Fitch beginning about 20 minutes after the end of the first game.

“Fitch probably did the best job so far,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said about the Falcons’ response to the Bulldogs’ pressure defense. “They were able to control the tempo early in the game, which no one else has been able to do. We are trying not to let you control the tempo, we’re going to make you make a play. Eventually we think you will get tired, making all those split-second decisions under pressure.”

After having his team’s offense stifled by Upper Sandusky’s similar defense in the state semifinals in March, Grisdale and his coaching staff decided to follow the example.

“We’ve always pressed, but we pressed in situations. Right now our goal is to press for 32 minutes,” Grisdale said. “We want to create as many problems as we can for your offense, not to let you set up and run plays.

“I have never, in 15 years of coaching, felt so handcuffed by a style of play as last year against Upper Sandusky,” he said.

And now the Bulldogs want to do the same thing to their opponents. Poland used nine players, splitting up playing time and points. Sophomores Niko Fatimus (20), Luke Wollet (13) and David Baker (10) led the scoring. Seniors Anthony DeFelice and Ben Umbel added nine each and sophomore Ben Donlow had eight.

“We have four great seniors who have supplied the leadership for this group,” Grisdale said. “The sophomores have been very successful from seventh grade up, but if you don’t have the four seniors, they are the glue that holds this thing together. They are the ones that are willing to share playing time and points.

“If you don’t have seniors that are willing to buy into the system, it’s not going to work. They are saying they are willing to do whatever it takes.”

Umbel didn’t need to score much to make his impact on the game. He had 10 assists, four steals and four rebounds. DeFelice added seven assists and senior post players Dave White (four rebounds) and Bryan Kosec (four points) also contributed.

Fitch was paced by junior John Williams with 18 points, senkior Joe Reedy with 13 points and six rebounds and sophomore Jon Ballard with 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Coach Roger Day said he has seen progress.

“We’ve gone from not being in games, to having the opportunity to be in basketball games,” he said. “I feel like we’re making some big strides. These guys come to practice and they work hard every day and I’m extremely proud of how we’ve taken some steps in the right direction. We’ll continue to get better as long as they work hard.”