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Bulldogs stingy in 4th
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Boardman’s T.J. Irving (4) tries to keep the ball from Poland’s Jerry Lawman during Tuesday’s game in Boardman. Poland won 63-49.
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
For the first time in seven games, Poland’s Colin Reardon wasn’t the leading scorer for the Bulldogs.
He was the first one, however, to hand out the accolades to their leading offensive threat Tuesday, Jacob Wolfe.
Wolfe had a game-high 23 points, including seven of his team’s 12 three-pointers while Reardon added 19 as the Bulldogs relied on a stingy fourth quarter defense to stop Boardman, 63-49, at the Spartans’ gymnasium.
“I cannot tell you how proud I am of Jake’s [Wolfe] effort tonight,” Reardon said. “As a sophomore, he’s really hit some key shots for us and we really needed those points tonight — especially in the fourth quarter.
“This was an overall team effort and the fact that our defense kicked it up a notch in the final period was really big as well,” Reardon said.
A bucket by Deion Harris just 22 seconds into the final period increased the Spartans’ lead to 45-39, but two triples each by Wolfe and Reardon keyed a 14-0 run by the Bulldogs.
The Poland (4-3) defense then held Boardman (3-5) scoreless for 3:48 of the final period, outscoring them 10-4 the rest of the way for their third consecutive win and fourth victory in their last six outings.
“Tonight, we got the stops when we needed them most,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. “Colin [Reardon] can’t go to the bathroom without three defenders on him so to have Jake [Wolfe] pick up the slack was a real positive for us.
“Another key was that our defense took away their second and third shots in the last quarter,” Grisdale said. “We’re not a good enough offensive team to allow more than one shot to our opponents.”
The Bulldogs set the tone early as Wolfe canned two of his triples in the opening quarter, Conner Schultheis and Jerry Lawman adding triples as well as Poland scored the last nine points of the period to race to the 17-10 advantage.
Another bucket from beyond the arc by Wolfe at the outset of the second frame then helped the Bulldogs open a 20-14 lead.
Alex Passas’ 10 points then keyed a 10-2 run by the Spartans as they out-scored the Bulldogs, 14-5, to close the period and forge a 24-22 lead at the intermission.
“I was really fortunate that all night my teammates got me the ball when I was open,” Wolfe said. “I was feeling it and they just kept feeding me.
“The turning point in the game wasn’t what we did offensively,” Wolfe said. “It was what we did defensively in the final quarter.
“That was the difference in the game for us tonight,” he said.
Boardman’s T.J. Irving scored all eight of his points right after intermission, offsetting eight points by Wolfe as the Spartans opened their biggest lead of the night at 41-34 before settling for a 43-39 margin with eight minutes remaining.
“To become a better team, as we continue to try to figure certain areas out, we still need to find more scorers and offensively it was encouraging for us tonight,” Grisdale said.
Boardman lost for the second straight outing and fell to 2-3 at home.
“Our problem all season long has been consistency,” Spartans coach Dan McKeown said. ”We beat an excellent Canton GlenOak club 10 days ago, but a two-point quarter last Tuesday against Canfield hurt us and a six-point quarter tonight proved to be costly as well.
“When we put four quarters together we can beat anyone on our schedule,” McKeown said. “Conversely, when we don’t put four good quarters together then anyone can beat us.”