43
Austin powers Poland: Wilson’s 23 points lift Poland past LaBrae
Photo
Poland's Austin Wilson shoots over LaBrae defender Mike Eakins in the first half of their game Wednesday in Poland. Wilson's career-high 23 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 67-54 win over the Vikings.
Wilson’s 23 points lift Poland past LaBrae
By Joe Scalzo
POLAND
The question on Poland’s locker room whiteboard read “Exam 19: Are we the best team in the AAC?”
The answer, at least on Wednesday, was clear.
Thanks to a career night from junior Austin Wilson and a 15-0 run that stretched from the end of the third quarter to the beginning of the fourth, the Bulldogs pulled away from visiting LaBrae 67-54 in an All-American Conference cross-division boys basketball game.
Wilson scored a career-high 23 points off the bench — his previous high was 11 — and kept Poland in the game for the first three quarters when the outcome was still in doubt.
“Austin Wilson did an amazing job,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. “He came in and gave us a spark.”
It was a breakout game for Wilson, who came off football season with a pulled groin, then broke his hand in practice after the second game of the season. He missed a month and admitted he’s just now regaining his early-season form.
“To be honest, I wasn’t there when I came back,” said Wilson, who scored 19 of his points in the first three quarters “Tonight’s game got my confidence back for sure.”
LaBrae (15-4) went to a little-used 1-3-1 defense to keep Poland off balance and actually led by three, 38-35, with 2:18 left in the third quarter. But the Bulldogs started showing a little more patience on offense and began to get better looks, using that 15-0 run take the lead for good.
“We definitely wore down,” LaBrae coach Chad Kiser admitted. “They’re a little bit deeper than us. Physically, they’re a little stronger than us and that part of the game wore on us, both physically and mentally. We broke down mentally.
“They’re just well-coached. They hurt you on both ends of the floor, that’s for sure.”
LaBrae actually got back within five midway through the fourth, but Kyle Dixon hit back-to-back 3-pointers to bump the lead back to double digits. George Chammas had five assists and four rebounds in the fourth quarter and helped slow Vikings senior Peyton Aldridge, who finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, but had to battle through double teams most of the night.
“I tip my hat to George; over the last three games, we’ve asked him to guard the best player,” Grisdale said. “Against Canfield [last Friday], he held [Jarret] Vrabel way below his average. [Tuesday] night against Streetsboro, he held a kid averaging 22 points a game to nine. And Peyton got 16 tonight, but I don’t think it was an easy 16.”
Dixon finished with 13 points, four rebounds and four steals and Jared Burkert had 12 points off the bench for the Bulldogs (16-2), who are 14-1 against AAC teams, with the lone loss coming on Dec. 20 at Canfield in overtime.
Wednesday’s game was a makeup from Jan. 28 and it was the first back-to-back weekday game in Grisdale’s 21 years at Poland, which may have contributed to the Bulldogs’ sluggish start. But after scoring just seven points in the first quarter, they found their stride.
“They’re [LaBrae] a very good team so this will definitely help us coming into the playoffs,” said Wilson.
When asked if playing Poland will help his team, Kiser shrugged and said, “As long as we learn from it.”