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Unbeaten LaBrae takes down Poland
By DAN HINER
LEAVITTSBURG
Momentum swung early in the LaBrae boys basketball team’s 52-38 win over Poland on Tuesday night. But it wasn’t because a Vikings player made a clutch 3-pointer, dunked the ball or even made a steal.
It happened by doing nothing.
LaBrae (11-0) gained possession and held the ball just beyond half court with 4:30 remaining in the second quarter. LaBrae head coach Chad Kiser was waiting for the Bulldogs to go into a man-to-man defense but the Bulldogs never changed their defense before the buzzer — letting the Vikings take a 24-13 lead into halftime.
“We held the ball, up 11, until they would come they would come out and guard us. You only have to win by one, so 11 is a good start at the half,” Kiser said.
But the LaBrae defense helped the Vikings take a 11-point lead into halftime. The Vikings prevented Poland from getting into an offensive rhythm and forced the Bulldogs into contested shots.
Poland (7-4) had trouble holding onto the ball throughout the game. The Vikings stole the ball 13 times and forced the Bulldogs to make difficult passes against their zone defense.
“That’s our calling card every night,” Kiser said. “That’s our goal — to hold teams to 40 or less. We did it tonight. Tonight’s our first night. We had a couple low 40s — 41 last week against Mooney. I think 38 helped us here.”
After being outscored 12-4 in the opening four minutes of the first quarter, the Bulldogs cut the LaBrae lead to 18-11 going into the second.
But whatever momentum Poland had was quickly lost after LaBrae brought the game to a standstill.
Poland head coach Ken Grisdale said he didn’t want to give the Vikings’ offense any more opportunities to score going into the second half.
“We were in foul trouble, and on paper, they are a better basketball team than we are right now,” Grisdale said. “So if they want to hold the ball and shorten the game so we have a better chance coming out in the third quarter — you saw, coming out of the third quarter, we cut it to four or six right away. If we kept playing, that might have been 13, 15, 20 points.”
Another turning point came with 3:48 left in the third quarter.
Poland was called for a reach-in foul and sent LaBrae guard Benton Tennant to the free-throw line for two attempts, but a Bulldogs player spiked the basketball and was called for a technical foul.
Tennant went to the line and extend the Vikings’ lead to 31-20. Poland was unable to make up the deficit in the fourth quarter.
LaBrae’s Aaron Iler and Carlton Brown were the only two players score double-digit points, but the duo combined to score 23 points. Iler led the team with 13 points and Brown added 10 points and six rebounds.
“We’re a pretty balanced scoring team. We just don’t have one guy to stop,” Kiser said.
“We have six or seven guys who can put the ball in the basket. It makes it hard for teams defensively. We’re not worried about getting our points. Like tonight, we weren’t worried about scoring.”