Saturday, December 29, 2018
By Greg Gulas
POLAND
Following a loss to the Hudson Explorers on Dec. 22, Boardman Spartans coach Pat Birch felt as though his team was a little too passive when taking the ball to the hoop.
He knew that he had to challenge his squad in practice if he expected Boardman to be ready for Friday’s game at Poland.
It worked.
Derrick Anderson had a game-high 24 points, Che Trevena added 15, and the Spartans built a 21-point, third-quarter lead as they rolled to a 66-48 win over the Bulldogs.
“We took the challenge to heart and just kept attacking the rim tonight,” Anderson said. “We came together after our loss to Hudson and as we move forward, we’re going to need to maintain that same mentality.”
Anderson scored his team’s first eight points of the game as they raced to the early 8-2 advantage.
Dan Kramer scored four of his team-high 13 points in the opening period to help Poland (5-2) pull to within 14-11 after the first eight minutes of action.
Trevena then followed with nine of his 15 points in the second quarter, offsetting Kramer’s seven markers and two triples by Michael Cougras as Boardman (5-3) opened a 39-33 halftime lead.
“A win like this is a great way to bounce back after such a tough loss to Hudson,” Trevena said. “We played tough defense and played Braeden O’Shaughnessy, who is one of the very best players in the area, tough as well. This is a very big win for us.”
Leading by six at the intermission, the Spartans scored the first 15 points of the second half as they opened their largest lead of the game at 54-33.
A Kramer bucket at 2:18 ended a 6:12 scoring drought by Poland as they scored the last six points of the period to cut the deficit to 54-39 with eight minutes remaining.
“Give Boardman and head coach Pat Birch a ton of credit,” Poland head coach Ken Grisdale said. “They were prepared, have depth and made plays tonight. We hung around in the first half because when you give effort and execute you give yourself a chance to succeed. Our effort and execution were average, but we made shots.
“In the second half our effort was very good but our execution below average. You need both to be successful.”
A bucket and two free throws by O’Shaughnessy and a triple by Michael Cougras pulled Poland within 11 at 57-46, but Boardman scored seven of the game’s last nine points to secure its third win in their last four outings.
“We weren’t tough in a lot of areas in our loss to Hudson, but we showed we can be tough tonight, especially during our third quarter run,” Birch noted. “You don’t finish a game here very often holding the ball and that’s a testament to coach Grisdale and the program that he has built here at Poland.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and that is that he has the best program around. Derrick responded by going strong to the rim and Che answered the bell by playing excellent defense.”
Cougras added 12 points for Poland on four 3-pointers.