Bulldogs use 23-0 run to ‘Bury’ Cards

Poland v. Mooney Girls Basketball

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By Dan Hiner

dhiner@vindy.com

Poland

With 4:04 left in the fourth quarter, Sarah Bury drove into the paint and scored a layup. A buzzer sounded and play was stopped.

She became the sixth Poland girls basketball player to score 1,000 career points.

Bury finished with 20 points, leading Poland to a 67-43 win over Cardinal Mooney on Thursday night at Poland High School.

“It’s awesome,” Bury said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. We played together, and that’s what got me there.”

Two of Bury’s sisters came back from college to join the family at the game.

The Poland guard was the only person who didn’t know she could achieve the milestone on Thursday.

“[The family] knew she was close, but I wouldn’t tell her how many she needed,” Poland coach Nick Blanch said.

Blanch wanted to make sure she reached the milestone while the extended family was in town. He pulled her after making the layup.

“I was actually yelling at her to shoot the ball. When she was coming up the court, I just kept yelling, ‘Take it, take it.’ I just wanted to see it happen tonight with a big crowd.

“Both communities came out tonight, so I was very proud to have it done first of all, but have it done at home.”

The Bulldogs have had players reach 1,000 points in back-to-back seasons.

“That’s not something we see very often,” Blanch said. “We saw it a year ago with Bella Gajdos, she was the fifth girl in school history to do it. Now we have the sixth one right here.

“Great leader, great teammate. Even though [Bury] was in the pursuit of 1,000, she was still looking for the open teammate to get those assists before she was even looking for herself.”

Poland (10-0) jumped on the Cardinals early with a 23-0 run to start the game. Cardinal Mooney (7-3) played catchup the rest of the way.

“I give them a ton of credit,” Cardinal Mooney coach Jason Baker said. “They play extremely hard and get their hands on a lot of balls. We didn’t come out with energy and we didn’t value the basketball early in the game like we needed to.”

Camden Hergenrother was the only player in double figures for the Cardinals. She finished with 11 points, three rebounds and a steal.

Bury scored 10 of her 20 points during the Bulldogs’ first-quarter run. As the game went on, sophomore Jackie Grisdale and freshman Morgan Kluchar began to score.

Kluchar had 15 points and seven rebounds and Grisdale recorded 10 points and five rebounds.

“We have a great team chemistry,” Blanch said. “Everybody’s for everybody. We don’t have anybody who’s down on somebody because they’re a freshman playing over a kid who’s older than them. Everybody cheers for one another and everybody goes after it.”

The Bulldogs lost some key players from last year’s roster to graduation. Blanch believes Kluchar could develop into an important player as the year continues.

“Morgan’s a very coachable kid,” Blanch said. “She works extremely hard every day and she’s come a long way since the beginning of the season. It’s a big jump from eighth grade to varsity basketball and she’s made that jump and continues to want to get better.”

Bury missed almost a third of last season with an injury. As a senior, she has bigger goals in mind than scoring 1,000 points.

“We want to keep going strong,” Bury said. “We’d love to go undefeated, but we have to take it a game at a time. We want to win districts this year. We haven’t gotten there, so this is the year.”