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Melnek helps Poland end 26-game losing streak vs. Canfield
Melnek helps Bulldogs end 26-game losing streak vs. Canfield
POLAND
Groundhog Day was observed this week, followed by National Signing Day on Wednesday.
In a similar vein, Poland’s girls basketball team had a great day after beating Canfield, 56-31, to snap a 26-game losing streak to the Cardinals.
“They had a 26-game streak against us, but it’s over now,” said Emily Melnek, a junior who had a game-high 18 points for Poland (17-2) in the All-American Conference crossover game between Red and White tier schools.
The victory also extended Poland’s 2015-2016 season win streak to 11 games after the Bulldogs absorbed back-to-back defeats to Lakeview on Dec. 16 and Howland on Dec. 19.
After taking a 17-3 lead six minutes into the first quarter, Canfield hit the wall and was outscored, 25-2.
“We calmed down,” Poland coach Nick Blanch said. “Canfield is a good team, so you have that mental barrier [them beating you 26 consecutive times] to overcome. You look at them and think, ‘Maybe we can’t beat this team?’ and it takes a lot to overcome that, so you come in a little timid.
“Once we settled down and realized, ‘Hey, we’ve seen all these defenses before and we’ve seen pressure like this before,’ we settled down and started executing and that led into a better defense. Then we kind of got into the rhythm of our game and took them out of theirs.”
Sarah Bury added 10 points, while Jillian Penman had nine, Bella Gajdos eight and Maggie Sebest seven for the winners.
Marissa Donchess had nine points for Canfield (13-7), which scored two, nine and three points in the last three quarters, respectively. Poland made 22 of 46 goals, while the visitors were 11 of 44.
“It feels so good,” said Melnek. “It was really nice. I knew it was going to be a battle coming in, but the hard work paid off and the best team won.”
Melnek was involved in an amusing play late in the third quarter when she was the recipient of a pass at midcourt as the Bulldogs were in a transition.
However, Bury’s pass hit an unsuspecting Melnek in the back of the shoulder before it bounced vertically, then down into Melnek’s hands before she glided in for a layup.
“No, I didn’t make eye contract with Sarah, then, all of a sudden, the ball came right to me; then I had a really good feel, so I took it in,” Melnek said of making a seamless finish to a seemingly broken play.
“We haven’t beaten them since 2003,” said Blanch, Poland’s seventh-year head coach. “They beat us 26 consecutive times — all the games combined — so it’s a big win. We know they’ve been the hurdle that we’ve struggled with to get over, so that was one of our goals coming into the season. We came close last year, but fell short late in the fourth quarter, but this year we wanted to finish it for four quarters.”
Blanch was aware that the Cardinals were dinged up — with Brittany Coonce (knee) and Jill Baker (ankle) not playing.
“We know that they’re not at 100 percent, but, nonetheless, this is a great game for us,” he said.
Melnek, Poland’s second-leading scorer (11 points per game) to Gajdos (18), had other games in which she tallied 26 and 21 points.
Canfield coach Matt Reel said that Poland was the hungrier team Wednesday night.
“I give them a ton of credit because I thought they were more hungry than us in the last three quarters,” he said. “I thought we were hungry for the ball in the first quarter, but then they were quicker to the ball, they wanted rebounds more than we wanted them and they wanted to get to the hoop more than we wanted to guard them. That’s what I’m most disappointed in. Everything that could have gone wrong for us did in the last three quarters tonight.”
Reel didn’t dwell on the injuries to Coonce and Baker, his top rebounders, who also combine to give the Cardinals 18 points per game.
“Injuries happen and we’re a little banged up right now, but that’s not an excuse,” he said. “We expect our girls to play better than we did. We’ll get better from this.”
Also for Canfield, Ashley Kaleel and Alexandra Stanic had eight points apiece, while Serena Sammarone scored six. Because Poland and Canfield are in different AAC tiers, the teams only meet once this season.