43
Poland escapes Fitch to remain perfect this year
Poland escapes
Fitch to remain
perfect this year
By Greg Gulas
AUSTINTOWN
Poland boys basketball coach Ken Grisdale considers Austintown Fitch one of the three best teams from the area.
But that was little consolation to Falcons head coach Brian Beany after the Bulldogs’ 54-52, come-from-behind victory by the Bulldogs.
With the game tied at 52 and just 2.7 seconds remaining in regulation, Nick Buccieri stole the Falcons’ inbounds pass at mid-court, drove to the basket and he was fouled attempting a layup.
He calmly sank both free throws with under a second remaining (:00.7) and Poland (7-0, 4-0, AAC Red Tier) held on for the victory to remain undefeated overall and in All-American Conference action.
“Coach Grisdale called a timeout so that we could set up our defense. He told us to be aggressive on the inbound pass, apply pressure and don’t let them get anything easy,” Buccieri said. “After I got the ball, I drove to the bucket and tried to lay it in. Our coaches are the best in the area, so it’s up to us to listen to them. Tonight, it was just a great overall team effort.”
Grisdale was just happy to escape Austintown with a win.
“We wanted to be aggressive on the inbound pass, but didn’t want to foul unnecessarily. It was a great job by Nick, but I’m not so sure that he has run that fast in his life,” Grisdale said. “We’d get a spurt and then they’d put together a spurt. Coming in, I knew that we would be lucky to get out with a win, so this is a really huge victory for us.”
Fitch placed four players in double figures with Dom DiFrancesco’s 12 points leading the way for the Falcons.
DiFrancesco’s eight points in the opening quarter helped the Falcons (3-3, 1-2, AAC Red Tier) to an early 15-11 lead.
A triple by Anthony Pangio at 3:46 of the second period helped Fitch open a 23-17 advantage, but Jared Burkert’s triple, a bucket by Mike Gajdos and free throw by Jacob Burns keyed a 6-2 run to end the quarter as Poland pulled to within 25-23 at the intermission.
The Falcons started the second half on a 6-0 run of their own, opening their largest lead of the night at 31-23.
Burns, who finished with a game-high 19 points, then scored eight of Poland’s next 10 points as the Bulldogs forged a 33-31 advantage.
A Brian Beany triple, 3-pointer by Scotty Duffy and two free throws by Pangio gave the Falcons a 39-33 margin, but Buccieri’s bucket from beyond the arc with 10 seconds remaining cut the Fitch lead to 39-36 with one period remaining.
“It’s always a battle when these two teams get together and tonight was no different,” Burns said. “We needed a great team effort and that’s exactly what we got. Nick’s play at the end of the game was absolutely super.”
Burns’ bucket with 48 seconds remaining tied it at 52, setting up Buccieri’s heroics.
“We have had quite a few close games before with Poland – buzzer beaters, games that have gone to overtime but of all the close ones, this one tonight is the worst feeling of all,” the elder Beany said. “We left some things on the board and that proved costly. Give credit to both teams because it was a great effort on both sides.”
The Falcons held a 28-20 rebound advantage with the Bulldogs committing 12 turnovers and the Falcons 15 miscues.
Buccieri finished with 13 points and Burkert 11 for Poland while Derek Gunter (11), Duffy (10) and Beany (10 points) were in double figures for the Falcons.