Saturday, January 19, 2008
Gallery
Poland built a big lead en route to a 87-72 win over rival Canfield.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANFIELD — Ken Grisdale says his Poland Bulldog boys basketball team still has room for improvement and that’s nothing but bad news for the rest of the Metro Athletic Conference.
Poland (12-0, 7-0 MAC) cruised easily for three quarters and then had to hold off a Canfield fourth quarter rally to post a 87-72 victory before a capacity crowd here Friday night. The win gave the Bulldogs sole possession of first place in the conference standings.
“I think we’re getting better, but there are still things that we can improve on,” said Grisdale. “We need to do a better job of adjusting to the opposition’s pressure and we can’t afford to be sloppy.”
“Our pressure forces other teams to be sloppy and we can’t afford to give it right back with some sloppy play like we did tonight in the fourth quarter,” Grisdale said. “We didn’t play very smart at the end.”
Canfield came out running with the Bulldogs and that didn’t surprise Grisdale.
“John [Cullen] is a great coach and he knows that the only way you are going to beat us is to run with us,” he added. “Usually teams try to run with us, but with our depth we just wear them down in the second half.”
“Tonight we were in some foul trouble and we couldn’t use our rotation the way we normally do and that caused us some problems,” he added.
Cullen said he was pleased with the way his team performed against the Bulldogs.
“I was satisfied with the way we played, but I’ll never be satisfied with a loss,” Cullen said.
“I thought we did a good job against their pressure, but I also thought they shot the ball better than they have all year,” Cullen added. “They were hitting 3s all over tonight and in so many different ways. I though our kids showed a lot of character in the final quarter. We were tired, but we never quit.”
“The only way you can beat them is to negate their pressure, by scoring off their pressure, but tonight we missed so many layups and easy shots.”
The Cardinals were 30 for 61 from the field, but made just 12 of 22 from the free throw line and they didn’t make a 3-point goal. Poland finished 33 of 60 from the field and had 11 3-point goals.
Sophomore Niko Fatimus led the Bulldogs with 19 points including five 3-point goals, while senior Ben Umbel added 18, while sophomore Luke Wollet and senior Anthony DeFelice each had 10 points.
The Cardinals (10-2, 6-1 MAC) were led by senior Matt Keating with a game-high 22 points, 18 of them coming in the fourth quarter.
Senior John Manzoian added 14 points, while senior Brian Fox and sophomore Mike Podolsky each finished with 13.
The Cardinals came out and played the Bulldogs tough early in the opening quarter, but Fatimus’ first 3-point goal gave Poland a 7-6 lead with 5:46 left and the Bulldogs never trailed again.
Poland opened a 14-8 advantage, but Manzoian came up with two big steals and scored off both to cut the lead to 16-12. Poland led 21-18 at the quarter.
Canfield was still in the game midway in the second quarter 28-26, but DeFelice hit on back-to-back 3-pointers and Bryan Kosec followed with a layup off a Fatimus steal and Poland quickly jumped out in front 37-24. They led 46-31 at intermission.
The Cardinals came out and missed their first five shots to start the second half and then Poland went on an 11-2 run that pulled the Bulldogs in command 59-37. Poland outscored the Cardinals 12-6 over the final three minutes of the quarter to lead 71-44.
Then Keating took over for the Cardinals. He scored the first six points of the quarter that started Canfield on a 10-4 run to cut the lead to 75-54.
But the Bulldogs came right back with a 7-2 run of their own and led 85-59 with 3:50 remaining.
Fox had a 3-point play and Manzoian added another bucket to cut the lead to 85-64 and after Umbel scored for Poland with 2:40 remaining, Keating scored the last eight points, all on fast-break layups to make the final score respectable.