43
Bulldogs sweep Cardinals
Poland vs Canfield
Gallery
CANFIELD
Behind the strong scoring efforts of junior Brandon Barringer in the first half and sophomore Braeden O’Shaughnessy in the second half, Poland won back the “Battle of 224” trophy with a 64-56 win over archrival Canfield.
Sophomore Daniel Kramer was a monster on the boards, grabbing 16 caroms.
Barringer scored 14 of his 18 points before the intermission as Poland took a 27-22 lead.
O’Shaughnessy tallied 15 of his game-high 19 points in the second half as Poland led by as many as 12 in the third quarter and 11 points in the fourth.
Earlier in the season, Poland earned a 66-56 victory over Canfield.
“It feels great,” Poland head coach Ken Grisdale said of the series sweep. “My kids compete. We get sloppy, we make a ton of mistakes but they just keep battling.
“For this team to have 16 wins, what a testament to their heart and their ability to listen and try to understand things that are going on,” Grisdale said. We had one guy coming back with experience.
“I’m so proud of these guys.”
Canfield head coach Todd Muckleroy thought his team fought hard to get themselves back in the game.
“I felt for at least two-and-a-half quarters we did a nice job,” Muckleroy said. “I thought the game was really competitive.
“We had a bad stretch there in that third quarter that kind of let them get over the edge and we were forced to kind of dig ourselves out of the hole and we couldn’t get over the hump and they took advantage,” Muckleroy said.
“Give credit to Poland they’re a good team.”
Juniors Zach Tinkey and Spencer Woolley each scored 17 points to lead the way for the Cardinals (11-11) while Woolley had a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Bulldogs (16-4) couldn’t put the Cardinals away when they had a couple of big leads in the second half.
“We made bad decisions,” Grisdale said. “We were playing fast, we were pressing so we were going fast.
“We want to transition because that’s where we’ve been able to get points off of them,” he said. “But then when you have to slow it down they’re not experienced enough to truly comprehend that.”
Barringer certainly took it to the hoop every chance he had.
“I just put my head down and drove to the rim and got stuff kicking out, getting an assist for everyone when they were open,” Barringer said. “I just came in ready to drive it.
“It’s awesome but I couldn’t have done it without [my teammates] though,” Barringer said. “It’s a rival, we came to play and I love my team. I love it.”
And if it wasn’t Barringer it was O’Shaughnessy doing the damage.
“He’s been my best friend growing up so it’s awesome playing with him. I love him to death,” Barringer said. We work out together all of the time in the driveway shooting or going to run on the track to get in shape, everything.”
Kramer did his part adding 10 points with his 16 rebounds to the winning cause.
“It was a huge game, this is our big rival and I realized it was going to be a good fight so I had to keep fighting harder,” Kramer said. “It was a big win, we got the trophy back.
“It feels great.”“
Muckleroy said the loss stings.
“You like to try to split, try to win that last game and kind of keep that trophy so the boys are kind of disappointed in there,” Muckleroy said. “I got a tough locker room so it’s going to be tough for us to kind of pull us up by our boot straps and get back up for tournament play.”