Poland boys grind out win at Niles

January 16, 2013 at 12:05a.m.

NILES

Four days after watching his team suffer its first loss of the season, Poland High coach Ken Grisdale was anxious to see how his Bulldogs would respond in Tuesday’s road game at Niles.

“We were down, but I thought we had two pretty good practices,” Grisdale said. “It was important for us to come out and play a solid four quarters.”

While the Bulldogs’ performance wasn’t exactly a thing of beauty, it was enough to earn a hard-fought 45-41 victory over the Red Dragons. With the win, the Bulldogs lift their record to 10-1 (4-1 All-American Conference, American Division). Niles falls to 8-5 (4-2).

Poland has now won 29 of its last 30 games against Niles, including 15 straight.

George Chammas led the Bulldogs with 10 points. Alex Hubbell added eight points for the Dogs, while Jacob Roemer came off the bench to score seven points.

Niles senior Ray Russ led all scorers with 14 points, while Chris Parry and Kymone Gamble added eight apiece.

Chammas scored eight of his points in the final period, including the game’s biggest basket with 25 seconds left in the contest.

With the game tied at 41, Poland took a one-point lead when Jacob Wolfe converted the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw opportunity. Wolfe’s second attempt hit off the back of the rim, but Chammas grabbed the offensive rebound and converted a layup.

Down by three, Niles misfired on an open 3-point field goal attempt, and an ensuing putback on an offensive rebound. The Bulldogs then sealed the deal on another Wolfe free throw.

“Our goal was to get a win whether it was one point or 20 points, and ultimately we achieved that goal,” Grisdale said. “Hopefully we’ll figure out why we’re not playing as clean basketball as we would like.

“After committing 24 turnovers last week against Canfield, we worked on it and talked about it, and then came out tonight and committed 16 in the first half. We have to fix that or we’ll be in serious trouble.”

Struggles from beyond the arc for both teams kept the game close throughout. Poland was just six of 31 on three-point field goal attempts, while Niles converted four of 20.

Thanks to a 7-0 spurt to start the game, Poland led the entire first half. The Bulldogs eventually built a 26-18 advantage with three minutes left in the second quarter. However, Niles scored the final seven points of the frame to pull to within a point at the break.

Russ scored the first basket of the third quarter to give Niles its first lead of the night. Moments later, a Parry jumper extended the Dragons’ advantage to 29-26.

From that point on, the teams exchanged leads six times, and the game was tied on five different occasions.

“What can you say, Poland’s a great program,” said Niles coach Ron Price. “We battled them just like we did in previous years. I’m real proud of our kids, it was a game that could have gone either way.”