Poland wins dogfight against Lakeview

January 9, 2019 at 12:08a.m.

O’Shaughnessy, Kramer

combine for 46 points

By BOB ETTINGER

CORTLAND

Poland senior guard Braeden O’Shaughnessy has a long memory and set out with a goal to make right what he felt went wrong in a loss to Lakeview to end last season.

The long wait for revenge came to an end in a 59-42 Poland victory in Northeast 8 Conference play on Tuesday night.

“Actually, this is the biggest game on our schedule,” O’Shaughnessy said. “They knocked us out [in a district semifinal] last year. This was a game I circled on my schedule.”

Poland (7-2, 3-0) forced Lakeview to go cold in the third period and used a 15-2 run to take a 39-27 lead with 1:50 left in the quarter following a pair of Daniel Kramer buckets.

O’Shaughnessy finished with 29 points to lead Poland and Kramer chipped in with 17 points for Poland.

“Poland took us out of our system,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said. “They were pressuring on the ball and they were pressuring off the ball. They played really hard and took us out of everything we wanted to do. We took some quick shots and some bad shots. [Poland] executed really well tonight.”

That stretch forced Lakeview (8-2, 3-1) into playing the type of game it would rather not play.

“It seemed like they were stuck on 29 for a long time,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. “We wanted to be really patient. They’re such a potent offensive team, we figured they couldn’t score if they were on defense. We wanted to get high-percentage shots. So much of our plan was based on getting the lead so we could control the tempo. We were able to stretch out that lead and make play the way we wanted them to play.”

Once that plan came together, Poland pulled away to a 50-33 lead just more than midway through the fourth using a 10-2 spurt in which O’Shaughnessy netted six points.

“I thought when we got that lead to where we talked about it being where we wanted it, I could see (my players’) eyes light up a little more,” Grisdale said. “[Lakeview] didn’t match it. Both teams were a little tentative feeling out who was going to take a lead. If they got a lead, we knew the barrage was coming. If we got the lead, we wanted to slow it down.”

Daniel Evans and Jeff Remmick each scored 11 points and A.J. McClellan added nine for Lakeview.