Poland rolls past Springfield in 56-29 win

By JOHN BASSETTI
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
POLAND -- The team that relies on four busy guards and a big man eventually had success Friday night.
That team would be Poland, a 56-29 winner over Springfield Local in a game that had a slow start, but furious finish, even if reserves were on the floor at the time.
"We had difficulty getting the five bodies that we're really comfortable with on the court at the same time," Poland coach Ken Grisdale said of his predicament against zone coverage that caused some problems for the Bulldogs (17-3).
"They threw what we call a yo-yo zone and it gave us difficulty," he said of a variation of the 3-2 zone. "We had shots, but we weren't hitting them. There were open shots, but we were inconsistent."
Bulldogs take control
Poland held an 18-9 lead at halftime, then surged ahead against the visiting Tigers (14-6) by scoring 19 points in each of the last two quarters.
"We were able to get the five on the floor that we wanted, got some good possessions and they had to go to man-to-man," Grisdale said of the second half. "One of the things we knew we could do was penetrate.
"When they had to match up man-for-man, we knew were were able to get the ball in the paint and finish or create for somebody else. That's when we're at our best."
Guards Charlie Carchedi and Anthony DeFelice had 13 and nine points, respectively, while 6-8 Lou Coppola added eight for the winners.
Springfield was within five points, 18-13, after Todd Kibby made two free throws.
Then Coppola drew his third foul at 6:39 of the third quarter while trying to stop Kibby, Springfield's most productive player with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Instead of softening, Poland utilized Carcheri and DeFelice and took a 37-21 lead after three periods.
"They were going at it pretty hard," Grisdale said of the battle between Coppola and Kibby. "But when they shifted to man we had a couple isolations we can go to and that puts whoever is on Lou in a bind."
Coppola's return
When Coppola returned in the fourth quarter, he had six points and sub Alec Budinsky drained two 3-pointers.
"He's the key to our offense," Grisdale said of Coppola. "When we're able to get him going that opens up our guards and they are very difficult to guard because they can shoot the three or they can go by you."
Ben Umbel is one of the explosive starting guards, along with Chris Lovell.
"He's the guy who gets us going on the perimeter because he creates for other people and he's very difficult to stop when he gets going on the dribble," Grisdale said of Umbel, who had a team-high seven rebounds and three steals.
DeFelice also had three steals and evenly shared six assists with Lovell.
"We knew Springfield would play good defense," Lovell said of the low-scoring first half, "so we just took our time, played slow-down and knew we'd be in good shape being in position to win."
The 6-2 senior is a No. 4 guard in Poland's system.
Coppola gave credit to Kibby for his competitive spirit, but, once the Bulldogs were able to create space between Springfield's other defenders, the Poland player's game flourished.
"Kibby was real physical and he'll be a good player. They were taking away our post, but our guards hit some shots to compensate."
Springfield had only nine shots in the first half due to limited possessions.
Too many mistakes
"We didn't take care of the ball," Springfield coach Grant Spaite said. "The possessions we did have we threw the ball away. Half of our turnovers were unforced.
"Defensively in the first half we did a nice job, but hey made some nice adjustments and they hit some big shots coming out of the half and we never got rolling offensively."
Spaite explained the strategy of the zone defense.
"We were trying to keep some guys on the perimeter, yet take away their big guy. We were playing behind him and had a guy coming down and getting a hand in the passing lane. But, with his size, he towers over us. Coppola has a nice touch down there. When he gets the ball in deep it's pretty tough to stop him."
He admitted that his Tigers couldn't guard Poland one-on-one.
"When they pulled us out of our zone, we didn't go a good job of guarding man-to-man. Poland has nice balance. Their guards are very quick and they shoot the ball well. They do some nice things offensively to take advantage of their strengths."
bassetti@vindy.com