Mike Podolsky hits comfort zone in Cardinals’ 56-45 win

By Tom Williams

CANFIELD — Before Friday’s 56-45 victory over Howland, Canfield senior Mike Podolsky was feeling anything but super-confident.

Three stitches in his right hand had the 6-foot-2 basketball player out of his comfort zone.

“In pregame, nothing was falling and usually that’s a bad sign for me,” Podolsky said.

Signs aren’t always true indicators. Early in the second quarter of a tight All-American Conference Red Tier opener, Podolsky launched his first 3-point attempt. That basket gave the Cardinals (9-2, 1-0) a 20-13 lead and a jolt of confidence.

Moments later, Justen Vrabel’s basket and Dan Campolito’s 3-pointer opened up a 25-13.

“With these stitches in my hand, shooting has been tough,” said Podolsky, who scored 19 points. “So to get that first one to fall ... and the fans were throwing some energy out there, that got us going and kept the team rolling.”

Podolsky finished with seven baskets, three free throws, three steals, four rebounds and a block. He injured his hand in a game last week at Salem.

“I fell down and there was a screw underneath the basket,” Podolsky said of the cut. “Somehow, I find the screw on the floor ... that’s my luck.”

Later in the second quarter, Podolsky’s second 3-pointer extended the lead to 28-17.

“He’s a good basketball player,” Howland coach Dan Campana said. “We know they are a good shooting team and a good attacking team ... so we’re looking to get a hand in their [faces].

“They really pressured us, they forced some turnovers and more importantly, they capitalized,” Campana said.

Campolito’s six baskets included three 3-pointers as he scored 16 points.

“This is a real big win,” Campolito said. “It’s great to start off conference [play] with a win. Next week, we’re looking at [undefeated] Poland.”

Podolsky called the win “huge. Some people were saying ‘don’t look too far past Howland’ because of we’ve got [a big rival] down 224. [But playing Poland] next week, it’s hard not to look past Howland.”

Campolito credited the Tigers for keeping the game from becoming a blowout.

“They are real tall and long,” Campolito said. “They were just running the floor real well; that’s what they do best.”

Podolsky said he felt the Cards’ “defense was all right — we just fouled a lot. That played a big part in it and we had some turnovers late. And they are a hard-working team.”

Trailing 41-28, Tigers senior T.J. Lanier sparked his teammates with 11 points in the final quarter.

Lanier’s 3-pointer and a basket by Josh Davis sliced Canfield’s lead to eight points (47-39). But that was as close as the Tigers (4-6, 0-1) would get.

“They were doing a nice job of switching on defense,” Canfield coach John Cullen said of Howland. “They had good enough ball pressure that they took the vision away from our ball-handlers and we did not handle that very well.”

Cullen said the lesson he hopes his players learned is to slow the pace when they have a late lead.

“You have to be smart enough to realize that it was real warm in there tonight and people were getting tired,” Cullen said. “You get a lot more tired playing defense than you do playing offense.”

Down the stretch, Cardinals rushed some shots that were rebounded by Lanier, Davis, Dontea Dawson and Matt Haering.

“We wanted to make them play some defense so they weren’t as fresh on offense,” Cullen said. “We weren’t doing a very good enough job of getting proper spacing and we weren’t breaking pressure.

“They were dictating play with their defense — we’ll have to do a lot better job next week,” Cullen said.

williams@vindy.com