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Spartans’ surge foiled
Poland rebounds after losing 16-point lead
By ERIC FORTUNE
BOARDMAN
Through the first seven games of the season, the Poland High School boys basketball team has seemingly made it look easy winning by an average margin of 22.4 points.
Wednesday’s game against Boardman looked to be more of the same as the Bulldogs ran out to a 16-point advantage at the half on 79 percent shooting.
But, the Spartans nearly came all the way back before falling for the third straight time, 59-55.
“Boardman is going to compete,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. “They are probably the most athletic team we see all year.
“They are really athletic. I thought in the first half, we shot the ball exceptionally well which covered up some the ills and mistakes we were making. Some of the mistakes we made again in the second half, but they were hitting shots.
“We were somewhat tentative because when you have a lead you sort of want to work clock. They put us in a situation where we had to make plays. We just weren’t comfortable with that. We haven’t seen that this year.”
Braeden O’Shaughnessy and Dan Kramer got the Bulldogs (8-0) off to a quick start scoring all 19 points for Poland’s early 19-10 lead.
O’Shaughnessy led Poland with a game-high 23 points.
“We talked about trying to take O’Shaughnessy and Kramer not necessarily out but to overload on them,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “I think we ended creating some confusion for ourselves and not them. They exploited it and shot the ball really well.”
The Bulldogs led by 16 at the half on 8-of-9 shooting in the second quarter. They controlled the boards 14 to six with strong ball movement on 11 assists.
Holden Lipke got the Spartans (3-4) back in the game scoring 12 of his team-high 19 points in the third quarter and holding Kramer to just one point in the second half.
“Offensively, he means everything for our team,” Birch said. “Not only did he get going offensively in the second half, he really rebounded well. I think he really challenged Kramer. He took him out the game a little bit.
Boardman sped up the tempo of the game and committed to a full-court press outscoring Poland 22-12 in the third quarter to make it a six-point game going into the fourth quarter.
“The second half, they started doubling the ball, putting more pressure on the ball, and brought their back people up,” Grisdale said. “They put a lot more pressure up front.”
In the final quarter, Poland buckled down after the Spartans took their first lead at 50-49 after a Lipke bucket with 6:28 left.
Boardman expanded their lead to 55-52 after a Mike Melewski bucket. Then O’Shaughnessy was fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:02 remaining.
After calming sinking all three foul shots, the Bulldogs sealed the game after two more free throws from O’Shaughnessy after some key misses from Boardman.
“He’s a good player and that’s what a savvy player does,” Birch said.