Poland prevails; Lakeview’s Rygalski family benefits

January 27, 2018 at 12:10a.m.

By dan hiner

poland

The Poland Fieldhouse echoed as fans on both sides chanted “Alexis Strong” during a timeout in the boys basketball game between Poland and Lakeview on Friday night.

Poland and Lakeview fans donated $3,567 to support Lakeview girls basketball player Lexi Rygalski, who is battling cancer. The family was given the money at the end of the third quarter.

Poland (14-0, 7-0 All-American Conference White Tier) beat Lakeview 57-48 thanks to a second-half surge offensively.

Lakeview (11-4, 5-3 AAC White Tier) trailed just 30-29 at halftime, but Poland opened the second half on a 10-1 run and outscored Lakeview 17-4 in the third.

Braeden O’Shaughnessy led Poland with 20 points and eight rebounds while teammate Dan Kramer scored 14 points.

Mike Diaz had a rare scoring outburst for Poland. Diaz finished with 13 points, four rebounds, a steal and a block. Poland head coach Ken Grisdale said Diaz and Brandon Barringer vital to the team’s success throughout the season.

“If you were to ask me who are your MVPs to this point in the season I’d say Brandon Barringer and Mike Diaz,” Grisdale said. “Everybody knows what Braeden’s gonna do and everybody knows what Dan’s gonna do — they’re doing their thing — but if they don’t have those other two and Billy Orr they’d struggle because people would put even more pressure on them.”

Barringer and Orr finished with five points each.

Lakeview’s TJ Lynch led his team with 15 points, four rebounds and a steal.

Lakeview head coach Ryan Fitch said his team came out strong in the first half, but Poland’s transition offense tired his team out in the second half.

“We got a little sloppy with the ball, turned the ball over a little too much,” Fitch said. “We started Poland’s fast break a little bit by turning it over. And they’re super fast. They’re really fast, when you let them get out and run like that, and we’re trying to get back in defensive transition, we started getting fatigued a little bit with all that running.

“They made more plays than us in the third quarter and that kind of switched the momentum around a little bit.”

With the win, Poland created a little breathing room in the standings and now has a three-game lead in the AAC White Tier.

“Our goal always is to give ourselves a chance at the league title and if anything else happens, great,” Grisdale said. “I think we put ourselves in good position.”