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Bulldogs’ defensive style prevails at East High
YOUNGSTOWN
The sign upon the entrance reads: “Por Favor. No traer comida, bebidas o Gatorade al gimnasio.”
The warning to keep food and drinks out may be the reason for East High’s clean gym, but Poland’s basketball team, in a sense, didn’t heed the words as the Bulldogs feasted in the form of Friday’s 74-47 All-American Conference Red Tier win.
The teams stayed even through one quarter at 17-17, but Poland poured on the peskiness that caused several turnovers as the visitors outscored the Panthers, 19-7, en route to their second straight victory.
On Tuesday, Poland beat Lakeside, 81-54, and East lost its opener to Howland, 52-47.
Poland head coach Ken Grisdale was pleased with the output of his top four guys, but the fifth is no slouch, either.
“I’ve got some kids who I think are pretty good scorers,” Grisdale said of Jared Burkert, Mike Gajdos and the twin towers of Matt Baker and Jacob Burns (both 6-foot-7).
“Those are four pretty good basketball players,” Grisdale said of 20 points from Burkert and 15 and 14 from Gajdos and Baker, respectively. “But Nick is really scoring well for us,” he said of 16 more points from Nick Buccieri.
“It was a helter-skelter game, but I give the East kids a ton of credit because they played so hard and the coach has them going after it.”
Dennis Simmons, East’s fourth-year coach, said, “We’re still learning how to be a good team, we’re learning how to win — against one of the top teams in the area.”
Grisdale said that his team was able to execute its offense when the Bulldogs slowed themselves down.
“I think that gave us a little bit of an advantage,” Grisdale said.
It was typical Poland basketball with their nonstop hustle and defensive play disruption.
“I’m proud of who we are,” Grisdale said. “We’re a different team [this season]. We’re not as deep and we can’t do the full-court stuff like some of the other teams we’ve had, but I think they really got after it in the halfcourt [mode],” he said of his players’ rebounding, changing shots and blocking shots when needed.”
Both teams had 42 rebounds, but East had 16 turnovers to Poland’s 11.
Baker had 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots, while Burns and Buccieri had seven and six rebounds, respectively.
Gajdos had five assists and he and Burkert had four steals apiece.
Simmons has players who never played high school basketball before and some who are first-year varsity players.
“As talented as they may be, we’ve still got to learn,” Simmons said. “It’s painful to learn — like executing better and finishing at the basket — but we’ll be alright. I think the guys played hard. I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Simmons attributed some of the middle-quarter turnovers to the inexperience of players not having their hands ready to catch the ball before it’s slapped, pulled or batted away.
“We have guys who will get you the ball, so you’ve got to have your hands ready.”
Junior guard Ceandre Backus led East with 14 points, while senior guard Malik Marrow added 10.
Simmons was bothered that his Panthers only scored 47 points.
“That’s another problem,” he said, “because teams want to neutralize our speed,” he said of East’s paltry 24-point production after two quarters.
“You want to get that up to around 30, 35, 40 points for a half,” Simmons said of limiting the turnovers. “It’s also learning where to take the shots, but we’ll get it.”