Poland makes point in rematch with Struthers

March 2, 2014 at 12:08a.m.

By Steve Wilaj

POLAND

Poland High forward Dan Black would be lying if he said he and his teammates didn’t hear the comments within the past week about how Struthers — which nearly upset Poland on Feb. 21 — could stick with the Bulldogs.

“We definitely wanted to make a statement today,” Black said.

Statement made.

Poland left no doubt from the outset, taking control early and cruising to an 84-52 victory over the Wildcats in a Division II sectional final.

“They thought they had a chance to beat us tonight,” Black said. “So they were ready to play, but we were more ready.”

That was evident as the Bulldogs (21-2) jumped out to a 17-4 lead after the first quarter. This push was led by plenty of intense defensive pressure.

“Last Friday we played them really well, but they came out to prove a point that they’re a better team than us and tonight they proved it,” Struthers coach Joe Savko said. “Our guys just could not match the intensity that they had tonight.”

Poland led by 10 before the Wildcats (8-15) could catch their breath. Bulldogs junior guard Kyle Dixon also caught fire early, knocking down three first half 3-pointers en route to his 15 points.

“Last Friday they caught us off guard, had a good game plan and hit some shots,” Bulldogs coach Ken Grisdale said. “I don’t want to take anything away from that performance, but when you give us three extra days to prep for something we didn’t do real well against, I think we’re pretty good at coming back.”

Poland also hit more shots this time around, connecting on 10 of 20 shots from beyond the arc. To go along with Dixon, Black led the scoring with 19 points, Wolfe added 12 points and Nick Gajdos scored eight.

Black connected 7 of 13 shots, including 3 of 5 from 3-point range.

“Jake Wolfe opens everybody because you have to bring defenders in when he goes to the rim,” Black said. “So I was open and hit some shots tonight. But we’re a very unselfish team. We like to pass it around. We don’t care who scores and gets the points.”

Ray’Quan Phifer paced Struthers with 18 points. However, the Wildcats shot just 37 percent, including 4 of 22 from long range.

“It’s always tougher when you’re not making shots,” Savko said. “Our guys were still out there playing hard, but tonight we just didn’t make many.”

Poland moves to on to play Ravenna at Warren G. Harding High in the district semifinal. That game will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

“The setback against Mooney last year [in the tournament] is still with us players,” Black said. “So we’re ready.”