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Gajdos, Bury lift perfect Poland girls over Niles
By Steve Ruman
NILES
After compiling a 21-3 record a year ago and returning its entire girls basketball team, Poland came into the season with a giant bull’s-eye on its back.
Fans throughout the Mahoning Valley knew it, the Poland coaching staff knew it, and most importantly the Bulldog players were well aware of the situation.
“We tell the girls all the time that the only thing we did last year was make a ourselves a bigger target this year,” said Poland coach Nick Blanch. “They can sense that last year’s success has made our opponents a bit hungrier to knock us off our perch.”
To this point, the Bulldogs have stood their ground.
The latest hurdle was crossed Wednesday night at Veterans Memorial Gymnasium in Niles, where Poland downed the Red Dragons 61-41 to lift its record to 5-0.
“It’s not easy, but this team is so coachable and so understanding of the situation. They certainly have handled the pressure like a veteran team,” Blanch said.
Against the Dragons, Poland started off sluggish and held a slim 9-7 advantage after one quarter of play. However, as the temperatures outside quickly began to plummet, the Bulldogs heated up. They scored 22 points in each of the middle two quarters to quickly pull away.
Bella Gajdos and Sarah Bury led Poland with 18 points and 15 points, respectively. Emily Melnek and Maggie Sebest scored seven points apiece. In all, nine Poland players scored.
Niles (1-3) was paced by Dakota Naples’ 13 points. Amanda Blank added nine.
Poland opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers by Melnek and Bury to grab a quick 6-0 lead it would never surrender. Niles eventually cut its deficit to 8-7, but a 9-0 Poland run in the middle stages of the second quarter gave the Bulldogs a 26-12 lead and put the game away.
Bury scored eight points in the second period.
“We started out kind of rough, but our press picked up in the second quarter and that picked up the entire team,” Bury said. “We did a lot of communicating with each other on the court. We were all really excited, because our defense always is what sparks our offense.”
Poland led 31-14 at the break, then extended its lead thanks to a 10-point third quarter by Gajdos.
“We don’t take anything for granted, and I think that’s a big part of our success,” Gajdos said. “We had a strong second quarter, but we came out of the locker room determined to keep playing hard. We feel like we have a lot to prove, not just to fans but especially to ourselves.”
Gajdos echoed the comments made by Bury regarding the importance of playing solid team defense.
“That’s something that we focus on, because you can have a bad night shooting but if you stick to playing hard, intense defense that will pick up the slack,” Gajdos said. “We struggled shooting early on but we kept up the intensity on the other end and that turned things in our favor.”
Niles turned the ball over 33 times, many the result of Poland’s smothering pressure.
As for the rest of the season, Blanch believes his team is in a prime position to make a successful run, mainly because of the mindset of his players.
“We feel as though we didn’t accomplish anything last year because we didn’t go far in the tournament,” Blanch said. “This group is extremely eager to finish the season stronger than it did a year ago.”