Sizzling Poland again reaches 100

POLAND — The Poland High boys basketball team’s offense is designed so that any player can score from anywhere on the court.

The Bulldogs’ defense is downright offensive as well.

Poland defenders forced 28 Howland turnovers as the Bulldogs ran past the Tigers, 100-71, in Friday’s All-American Conference Red Tier contest. Ben Donlow led Poland with 20 points and eight rebounds.

It was the fifth time that the Bulldogs (17-1, 6-1) topped the century mark as they won for the eighth consecutive time and improved to 7-0 at home.

While coach Ken Grisdale’s starters accounted for 52 points, it was his “B” group that he couldn’t stop talking about after the game.

“We got some quality minutes from our [B] group tonight and that was good to see,” Grisdale said. “We need scoring punch from them if we are to be successful.

“One thing we will need to talk to them about, however, is that they sometimes pass the ball entirely too much,” Grisdale said. “They’re an unselfish group, but the one thing they need to realize is that when you pass a little too much the likelihood of turning the ball over becomes much greater.”

While the Bulldogs raced to the 54-42 lead at intermission, it was a 22-3 spurt in the third period that broke the game wide open.

A tenacious defense registered 23 steals.

Three Bulldogs players registered at least five assists with senior Luke Wollet, who averages 7.5 assists per outing, dishing off a game-high eight assists to run his total to 61 over the past six outings.

“Luke wants the assists record really bad and if I had to name a Most Valuable Player for us right now, he’d be at the top of the list,” Grisdale said.

“The premise of our defense is to force turnovers and while we run multiple defenses, our one weakness has been our first trap,” Grisdale said. “That is something that we will need to work on.

“The premise on the other side of the ball is that this is a game of spurts, and you saw that tonight at the outset of the game and right after halftime,” Grisdale said.

The Tigers’ T.J. Lanier scored the first bucket of the game, but Donlow’s five points keyed a 12-0 run by the Bulldogs as they raced to a 24-16 advantage.

Lanier, who had a game-high 26 points, also hauled in a game-best 10 caroms for the game’s only double-double.

Donlow and Dave Baker combined to score 12 of the Bulldogs’ 30 second-quarter markers.

“It seems as though everyone has been there for each other since the midway point of the season,” Donlow said. “We just go all out and do what we have to do at both ends of the court when our number is called and we are in the game.

“We have two pretty big regular season games left this week so we cannot look ahead,” Donlow said.

The Bulldogs, who nailed 13 triples in the game, used four buckets from beyond the arc in the third period to outscore Howland by a 32-17 as they forged a comfortable 86-59 advantage.

A Jerry Lawman “trey” with 2:01 remaining then allowed the Bulldogs to hit 100.

The Tigers (7-11, 2-6) fell for the second straight time, losing for the fifth time in the past six outings.