Poland, Niles win in Div. II

By JOE Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

boardman

With less than three minutes remaining in a Division II sectional final and the game decided at least two quarters earlier, Poland senior Luke Wollet got up from the bench and pretended to head toward the scorer’s table.

Fighting back laughter, assistant coach Richard Black grabbed Wollet’s arm and pulled him back.

Wednesday’s game was a laugher.

The Bulldogs’ next game is no joke.

Niko Fatimus scored 22 points to lead Poland to a 99-52 win over Southeast in a Division II sectional final at Boardman High School.

The Bulldogs (20-1) will meet Niles (11-11) in a district semifinal at 7 p.m. Monday.

The Red Dragons beat Streetsboro in the opener, 65-58.

“Niles is playing really good basketball right now,” said Poland coach Ken Grisdale. “Their coach said the other day, they love playing here at Boardman. They shoot the ball really well here.

“It’ll be an interesting challenge.”

The Red Dragons lost both games with the Bulldogs this year but played them close in the first meeting, trailing by just four with 90 seconds left. Niles coach Rick Kover missed the second game when he was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat.

“With Poland’s style of play, you’re going to get some open shots,” said Kover. “You’ve just got to knock them down.”

The nightcap was never in doubt as the Bulldogs led 79-30 in the opening minutes of the third quarter when Grisdale pulled his starters.

How bad did it get? Put it this way: One Southeast fan painted his face for the game and had picked off most of the paint by halftime.

“We took care of business,” said Grisdale, who then started singing “Taking care of business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive. “That’s a good song, too.

“Who sung that? Not me, right? I better stop.”

Darius Patton added 18 points off the bench and the Bulldogs got scoring from 11 different players. Poland was coming off an emotional victory over Canfield on Friday and Grisdale said his main concern for his team’s first tournament game was the Bulldogs’ focus.

“That game took a lot out of us, mentally and physically,” he said.

Brian Dubos scored 12 points for Southeast (9-12).

In the opener, Niles raced out to an 8-1 lead in the first four minutes and never trailed, although Streetsboro made things interesting in the final minutes.

After the Red Dragons took a 55-43 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Rockets turned up their defensive pressure. They forced four Niles turnovers and a missed shot while running off nine straight points on the other end, making it 55-52 with 1:38 left.

Ryan Frantz stopped the bleeding with a three-point play off a nice drive inside and Nick Young hit two crucial free throws to give the Red Dragons a 60-54 lead with 40 seconds left.

All told, Niles hit 8 of 9 from the free throw line in the final 62 seconds.

“I don’t think we played the best of games but in tournament time, we played well enough to win the game,” said Kover. “Our kids understand what happened in this game and what they need to do in the next game.”

Young scored 16 points for Niles, while David Allen had 14 and Saul Vaughn 12.

Senior Ryan Frantz, the school’s all-time leading scorer, had just eight.

“I watched the Ohio State game [Tuesday] night and Evan Turner wasn’t scoring, so Jon Diebler stepped up,” said Kover. “Nick Young was kind of like our Jon Diebler tonight.”

Leon Hedgepeth scored 25 for Streetsboro (13-8), which defeated Poland in last year’s district final.

Kover knows his team will enter next week’s game as a big underdog but he also knows his team has nothing to lose.

“When it’s tournament and you know it’s one and down, you tend to play a little different,” he said. “I think sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad.”