Boardman unable to stay close

January 18, 2014 at 12:04a.m.

By JOE CATULLO JR.

Boardman

After a nice defensive stand to open Friday night’s contest, Boardman High scored the first two points against GlenOak, hoping to feed off of its last performance against the Golden Eagles.

That was the closest Boardman came to the Golden Eagles all night. No matter who played or what the situation was, GlenOak dominated from the opening tipoff to the final buzzer in its 70-37 victory.

“From beginning to end, it’s the best that we’ve looked,” GlenOak coach Jack Greynolds said. “We played Lake pretty well for two and a half quarters. We did half good against Jackson. We just couldn’t string it together.”

The Golden Eagles (8-5, 5-4) scored 14 consecutive points after the Spartans (2-10, 1-6) struck first. The lead kept increasing as GlenOak led, 19-6, after the first quarter.

“We didn’t hit shots early and kind of got away from our game plan,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “We got a little bit into panic mode where we thought we had to do more outside of our abilities. Instead of just sticking with it and grinding through it, we decided to improvise a little bit.”

The only time that lead stalled was midway in the second quarter when Boardman cut the deficit to 12. It was a perfect opportunity, in Birch’s mind, to get back in the game. The Golden Eagles, however, bolted to a quick 6-0 scoring run within a matter of seconds.

“’If we can get this to single digits, for as bad as we shot in the first quarter, this is going to be OK,’” Birch said to his team. “That one six-point run just kind of broke our back.”

Boardman shot 31.5 percent from the field and made one 3-point field goal on 15 attempts. The Golden Eagles made 44.2 percent of their shots (42.1 beyond the 3-point line) and hit 14 more free throws than the Spartans.

Jacob Boring paced the Golden Eagles with a game-high 19 points and three assists. Brandon Grider finished behind him with 14 points. Jake Merrell only scored one point but collected a game-high 11 rebounds. Out of 14 Golden Eagles, 12 scored at least one point.

Marcus Smith led the Spartans with 13 points. Brian Fryda finished with nine points and Boardman’s lone 3-pointer while Ryan Mckeown scored eight points.

Friday night’s performance comes after Boardman “deserved to win” on Dec. 13 in GlenOak. The Golden Eagles won, 53-48.

“The first time we played Boardman, they outplayed us,” Greynolds said. “I don’t think we were invested in that game. We learned a lesson, and tonight we came out with the right attitude and mentality.”

Birch said the biggest difference between the two games was shot selection.

“Early on in that game, we made shots, and that’s kind of been the trend this year for us,” he said. “When we hit shots early, our defense picks up. Our energy picks up. We’re a different team. When we don’t hit shots early, we kind of fall back the other way.”