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ALL-AMERICAN FLYERS
Poland starts fast, then holds off Howland
By Brandon Judeh
POLAND
The Poland boys basketball team blew a 17-point halftime lead on Friday, but held on to beat Howland in a 77-75 thriller.
With 17 seconds remaining, Poland senior Colin Reardon scored off of a post move that gave the Bulldogs (10-4, 6-2 All-American Conference American Division) a 76-75 lead, but that left plenty of time for the Tigers to win.
Howland (8-6, 6-2) gave the ball to junior Chris Maze, who then penetrated the Bulldogs’ defense and got off a good shot, but it rolled out.
One Reardon free throw later, the Bulldogs were celebrating a huge victory.
“Honestly I went to go set a screen and then stuck my hand up and there the ball was so I knew I had to post up and score,” Reardon said.
Reardon also added that his team’s strategy on defense, after he hit the go-ahead shot, was to play as hard as possible and keep the ball in front of them to prevent Howland from getting to the basket.
It was a slow start for the Tigers as they shot a woeful 1-7 in the first quarter, compared to the Bulldogs hitting 75 percent of their shots. Not helping matters for Howland was Reardon, who scored 12 first-quarter points.
Things only got worse in the second quarter as Poland built their lead up to 17 points with Reardon and Jerry Lawman combining for 74 percent of the Bulldogs first half points.
Reardon scored a game-high 36 points and grabbed seven boards while Lawman added 18 points.
“We allowed Poland to score on lay-ups the entire first half,” Howland coach Bill Bogan said. “We have seven seniors on this team and with the experience we have there is no reason to come to a rival and not be able to get up and play a basketball game in the first half.”
Bogan’s half-time speech about “pride” stuck with his team as they came out in the third quarter on fire. They started out on a 9-0 run to cut the Poland lead to single digits.
“We started out strong and ready to go, but coming out of halftime we relaxed a little too much and got comfortable with our big lead and we have to stop doing that because if we don’t we won’t last very long in the tournament,” Lawman said.
Howland, the highest scoring team in the tri-county area, outscored the Bulldogs 28-14 in the third quarter, which cut the lead to three points.
In the fourth quarter, the Tigers continued their 180-degree turnaround by taking a three-point lead.
Reardon’s clutch plays tamed the Tigers for good.
“A close, last-second, win like this gives us a ton of momentum going into our last six games and into the tournament, this team just never gives up,” Lawman said.
Howland’s trio of Brendan Cope, John-Mark Weisman and Arbie Murray contributed 21, 18 and 16 points, respectively.