Poland extends winning streak

By Greg Gulas

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

The Poland Bulldogs were humbled on their home court by Boardman 66-48 on Dec. 28.

They’ve humbled the six teams that they have played since that drubbing.

Braeden O’Shaughnessy had a game-high 21 points and seven rebounds and Daniel Kramer scored 18 points as Poland beat Struthers 62-44 in a Northeast Eight Conference game Friday night.

“We regrouped after that loss to Boardman, worked hard on our skill set and also our defense,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Coach [Ken] Grisdale tells us all the time that effort plus execution equals success and that has really been the key to our streak.

“Struthers has several players that can light up the scoreboard, so tonight we knew that we had to play solid defense and look to score in transition.”

Poland (11-2, 7-0) set the tone early, leading from opening tip to final buzzer. The Bulldogs scored the first 14 points and led 17-2 and 23-4 in the first quarter.

O’Shaughnessy scored 10 points and Kramer five in the first quarter.

Nine points by Kramer in the second offset two triples by the Wildcats’ Trey Metzka as Poland opened a 39-19 advantage.

“We’ve been playing more as a team and been very unselfish during this winning streak,” Kramer said. “We’re playing well at both ends of the court and the chemistry is coming. Tonight, we knew that we needed to play good defense because they have several players that can light it up from the outside.

“What helped is that we didn’t give up very many second chance opportunities.”

Neither team could get their offense untracked in the third quarter as Poland outscored the Wildcats, 6-5 to open a 45-24 margin with eight minutes remaining.

Kevin Traylor had all five of the Wildcats’ points in the period.

“We had entirely too many turnovers (17) tonight, quite a few that were unforced,” said Struthers head coach Mike Wernicki. “Give them credit because they did a great job with some minor adjustments that bothered us. This was them dictating the tempo and playing their game on both sides of the ball.”

Jared Laczko led Struthers with nine points. Metzka and Carson Ryan each had eight points. Ryan scored all eight of his points in the fourth.

Struthers (7-7, 3-4) saw its three-game win streak end.

“We’re coming around and hitting our stride,” Grisdale said. “They understand their roles and are a fun team to be around right now. Our kids did a great job of following the game plan. They understand what they prepped for and then went out an executed.

“We have a bunch of team players that can score, but they also create scoring opportunities for their teammates.”

Poland was 24 of 55 from the field while the Wildcats were just 16 of 42.

Neither team flourished from beyond the arc as the Bulldogs were just eight of 25 and Struthers eight of 23.

It was the sixth consecutive win for the Bulldogs as they improved to 4-2 at home and remained undefeated (6-0) in 2019.