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Poland tops Boardman in OT
By CHARLES GROVE
POLAND
Poland avoided a three-game losing steak, pulling away from Boardman in overtime to walk away with a 75-67 victory. But it was far from a picture-perfect victory.
Matt Baker led the Bulldogs with 26 points, 21 of which came in the second half to propel the Bulldogs (14-3, 9-3 All-American Conference Red) past the Spartans. Boardman’s John Ryan led all scorers with 28 points and Holden Lipke dropped 23 before both fouled out in the extra session.
But it will be the two technical fouls to Nick Buccieri and the subsequent ejection that will carry over for the Bulldogs. The senior will miss games at Warren Harding and against Lakeview before being allowed to play again.
“When you wear your emotions on your sleeve you’re going to react emotionally instead of rationally,” Poland head coach Ken Grisdale said. “But it gets to the point where you can’t hurt your team.”
Boardman (6-11, 2-8 All-American Conference Red) gave Poland fits most of the night, forcing turnovers and hanging around the entire second half as Ryan and Lipke carved up the Bulldog defense.
“We tried to attack,” Boardman head coach Pat Birch said. “We didn’t want to come out and sit back on our heels. [Ryan] has done a really good job of just attacking guys at the rim and he’s taken it upon himself to be more aggressive offensively.”
Despite all the effort, Boardman now sits with a 6-11 overall record and has lost three of its last five games in overtime. “It’s a kick in the gut,” Birch said. “Moral victories stink because you’re this close to flipping the script. We’ve had seven losses within about three points if you include this one since it was overtime. It’s so close, we’re a step away.”
Things got heated in the first half when Boardman’s Alex Duda made a layup and was fouled in the process. Both Buccieri brothers — Nick and Jake — argued the call and both were hit with technical fouls prompting Grisdale to bench both until the final quarter when depth became an issue. Nick was put back in and was thrown out while at the foul line.
“I had two kids get hurt in the second half and I wish I hadn’t put Nick back in because I was trying to teach a lesson,” Grisdale said. “But my hands were tied and I thought that the kids who were on the court who had fought so hard that I owed it to them to give them the best player I could to help them win.”
From there it became the Matt Baker show. The senior was a machine down the stretch scoring seven in the fourth quarter and then going 5-of-6 in overtime to put the game away.
The Bulldogs went 12-of-15 in overtime with free throws while Boardman only scored seven points in the extra session.
“They scored right away [in overtime] and then we didn’t get a basket down on our end,” Birch said. “They score, we have a turnover and all of a sudden in three possessions you look up and you’re down seven with two minutes to go with only one timeout and that’s not a great scenario to be in.”
For Grisdale, this win was a classic case of overcoming obstacles to pull out a win.
“We had a lot of adversity tonight but we kept fighting,” Grisdale said. “You have to let go with what happened and stay in the moment. I told my guys, ‘Worry about what we can control.’ and I think we finally did at the end.”