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Bulldogs race past Panthers
By Tom Williams
POLAND
Like most of his Poland High School basketball teammates, junior Jacob Burns could not wait for the 2014-15 season to get under way.
In the Bulldogs’ last game (in March in Canton), they were within four points of Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary with 100 seconds remaining in the Division II regional final. Nothing helps ease the sting of coming so close to a major upset and trip to Columbus quite like excelling on the court.
But Burns had extra motivation. Two months ago during conditioning, he suffered a stress fracture in his leg, causing him to be idle for about five weeks.
So when the Bulldogs’ season tipped off Tuesday night against East, Burns made the most of his opportunity, coming off the bench to score 18 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 73-39 victory.
“It felt great,” said Burns of the Bulldogs’ rapid start that saw them jump out to a 27-7 lead in the first quarter.
“We played good defense, made shots when we needed to and made stops.”
Did he expect such a huge lead early?
“Not really,” Burns said.
As in seasons past, Poland head coach Ken Grisdale substituted frequently, launching waves of pressure at the Panthers’ offense. The Bulldogs forced 16 turnovers by halftime in opening up a 41-17 lead.
“It felt great to start off like that,” Bulldogs senior Dan Black said. “But we’ve got to do a better job of continuing — we kind of let down and didn’t play as hard.
“We had way too many turnovers and [allowed] shots,” Black said. “We kind of relaxed, but we can’t have that happen. Down the road, that will come back and bite us.”
Grisdale was pleased with how Burns responded to game action.
“He was sidelined from mid-October until about the third week of November, so he’s just starting to get back in shape,” Grisdale said of his 6-foot-6 player.
Black said the game could not begin soon enough.
“The first couple of weeks were real rough,” said Black of the regional tournament loss. “Once we got back into the swing of things, I started counting down the days. It felt like the National Anthem went on forever.”
To the Panthers, so did the first quarter. In the first 70 seconds, Tate Duarte, Jared Burkert and Black each scored a bucket for a quick 6-0 lead. Burns then made three baskets as the advantage grew to 20.
Despite the lopsided score, Black was impressed with the Panthers (1-1, 1-1 AAC Red).
“They played real hard,” Black said of the new members of the All-American Conference. “They are very quick and crashed the offensive boards real hard.
“We’ve got to work on boxing out and getting more defensive rebounds.”
Malik Marrow made two baskets as the Panthers opened the second half with a 7-0 run. But that spark was gone in the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs ended with a 22-9 surge.
Black and Kyle Dixon each scored 10 points. Jawalen Shaw led the Panthers with 12 points and Marrow scored 11.
East head coach Dennis Simmons wasn’t surprised at how well Poland started.
“They are the better team,” Simmons said. “We’re you — I have two guys who have [experience]. We’re a team in progress — we’re building and they are established.”