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Poland survives scare from Canfield
By Joe Scalzo
WARREN
Long before they were his coaches, Kyle Dixon sat in the bleachers, watching guys like Chad Fender and Niko Fatimus cut down the nets after leading Poland to yet another district title.
“When you grow up in that environment,” the Poland senior said, “that’s what you want to do when you get to high school.”
Who knows who was watching him on Saturday afternoon?
Facing a pesky (and oh-so-patient) Canfield team on Saturday, Dixon scored 14 points with six rebounds to lead the Bulldogs to a 42-34 win in a Division II district final at Warren Harding.
It was Poland’s third straight district crown and the ninth overall under head coach Ken Grisdale.
“[Canfield] just came out and competed,” said Dixon, a first team all-district selection along with teammate Dan Black. “Any time you play your rival, they want to come out and knock you off, especially with how we played in the regular season.
“We kind of blew them out. But they played great tonight. But we were still able to defend our title, which is great.”
After beating the Cardinals by 15 and 29 points, respectively, in the regular season, Poland seemed headed for another easy win when it jumped out to a 13-5 lead after the first quarter.
But Canfield quickly regrouped, using a clock-draining approach to limit the Bulldogs’ possessions while forcing them to play half-court defense for minutes at a time.
The Cardinals cut the deficit to one (15-14) by the midway point of the second quarter and tied it at 20 at halftime thanks to Mike Yourstowsky’s buzzer-beating layup.
“We talked about that triangle stall [that Canfield used on offense] the whole week, but it’s a harder to defend than when you’re doing it in practice,” Dixon said. “At halftime, we said we’ve got to pressure them and hit the gaps and see if we can turn them over and get more offensive possessions.”
It didn’t work immediately, as Canfield took a 26-24 lead entering the fourth quarter despite shooting just 1 of 9 from the field. But Jared Burkert opened the fourth with a 3-pointer to spark a 12-3 run that put Poland back in control. Yourstowsky hit two free throws with 45 seconds left to make it a two-possession game, 38-33, but Dixon hit Burkert with a full-court pass on the inbound, leading to a back-breaking layup.
“When you limit the possessions like that, it also doesn’t take a lot of possessions to get out of that and have a team like [Poland] take advantage,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said. “But I can’t be mad at the effort of our kids. I’m proud of them.
“But I certainly have a lot of respect for the Poland Bulldogs and Ken Grisdale.”
Tate Duarte, who finally looked recovered from an ankle injury that forced him to miss six weeks, had nine points and seven rebounds for Poland (25-2), which has won 20 straight games.
The Bulldogs’ two losses came to Uniontown Lake (which won its second straight Division I district title on Saturday) and Warren Harding (which lost to Shaker Heights in a Division I district final on Saturday).
On Thursday night at 6:15 at the Canton Civic Center, the Bulldogs will play Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary. The Irish defeated Poland, 52-41, in last year’s regional final, prompting Grisdale to vent his frustrations about private schools in general and SVSM in particular.
When asked about the Irish on Saturday, Grisdale grinned and said, “Nothing’s coming out.”
Not even a general quote?
“Any opportunity to play ... such a quality program ... we look forward to it,” Grisdale said, choosing his words slowly and carefully.
Yourstowsky, also a first team all-district selection, led Canfield (16-9) with 14 points and eight rebounds. Thanks to some all-too-frequent detours into the Division I tournament, the Cardinals were playing in their first district final since losing to Poland in 2007.
“This is a good thing, not just to be here but certainly for the younger guys, who see this atmosphere and kind of get used to it,” Muckleroy said. “Hopefully we can be like Poland down the road, where we can be here and do some damage. It all starts with these seniors. They did a great job.”