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SVSM ousts Poland
TweetBy JOE scalzo
scalzo@vindy.com
CANTON
About 20 feet outside his locker room in the basement of the Canton Civic Center, Poland High boys basketball coach Ken Grisdale sat slumped in a chair, sipping a water bottle.
“Been better,” he said. “Been worse.”
That was sort of the tale of Thursday’s game. Poland couldn’t have started much better or ended much worse.
After the Bulldogs ran out to a 15-point lead midway through the third quarter, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary turned up the pressure on the Bulldogs and they couldn’t recover, falling to the Irish 74-60 in a Division II regional semifinal.
“We ran out of gas,” said Grisdale.
For the first 23 games of the season, Grisdale relied on an energetic five-player second unit to give his starters a breather and take advantage of a tired opponent. But the taller, longer Irish jumped on those five players, forcing Grisdale to play his starters major minutes.
By the end of the third quarter it took its toll as SVSM (17-6) outscored Poland 35-9 over the last 10:22.
“When we scouted them, we saw that the second unit didn’t really look to extend any lead; they just tried to play against a group that was tired and get some cheap ones,” said Irish coach Dru Joyce. “Nothing against that, but we made a decision that when the second unit went in, we were gonna turn up the pressure.
“It hurt them. When you play that line substitution and you don’t get to make that substitution in the second half, they were very tired.”
Senior Ben Donlow scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds and classmate David Baker added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulldogs (22-2). Niko Fatimus added 14 points and Luke Wollet had 12 with six assists.
Those four players, all seniors, combined to score 57 of Poland’s 60 points, with starting senior point guard Dom DeFelice adding the other three.
Fatimus and Donlow, who were starters as sophomores, led a senior class that went 65-8 over the past three years.
When asked to talk about their contributions, Grisdale paused.
“There aren’t words,” he said. “We’ve been through so many things, good and bad. They’re a great group to be able to be around and they’ve given the community so many things to look forward to.”
He shook his head.
“Irreplaceable.”
Sophomore Lorenzo Cugini scored 18 points to lead five Irish players in double figures. Senior Dominique Mitchell had 13 points off the bench as SVSM’s reserves outscored Poland 19-0.
“Where did he come from?” Grisdale said of Mitchell. “In the [district final against Akron] Buchtel, he hit two 3s and in the games we saw beforehand, he was a non-factor.
“He got them going.”
Wollet, however, sparked the game’s biggest decision. After hurting the Irish with his dribble penetration, Joyce opted to switch to a 2-3 trapping zone at the start of the fourth quarter, mainly to stop Wollet.
“I think that’s the defense that turned it around for them,” Grisdale said.
SVSM advanced to play Cleveland Benedictine in Saturday’s regional final. The Bengals won the opener over Cleveland Collinwood 75-47.
Grisdale, whose teams have advanced to the state semifinals three times this decade, compared this year’s regional to the one his team faced in 1996, which featured defending state champions Orrville and Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph.
“If we would have got them [the Irish], less than 48 hours you go back and get Benedictine,” he said. “Benedictine didn’t really get pushed.
“V’s got pushed tonight. It’ll be interesting to see how quick they recover.”
Comments
Poland played a very weak schedule all year and beat bad teams like Springfield, Beaver Local, West Branch, Niles, Salem, etc. Their fans were all "giddy" as to how they were the greatest and at how many times they scored 100 points. SVSM showed once again that as soon as Poland travels outside of the Youngstown area, that they are just a mediocre team. 4 years ago Upper Sanduskey beat Poland by around 30 in Columbus. 3 years ago Chillicothe was beating Poland by 15 with 3 minutes to go (in Columbus) and coasted to an easy victory. Last year, Poland couldn't get to Canton. This year they were eliminated in Canton by 14 points. Next year Poland will again beat up on Youngstown area dogs and go 16-4. Then they will get their lunch handed to them in Canton. A good bunch of kids but very overrated.
Overrated? Maybe. But you cannot discount their talent. These kids played basketball the way basketball was suppose to be played. As fans, we were "giddy" because we watched these young men grow-up since their sophmore year. Not because we thought they would win state. There was no way. Poland didn't have the size or strength. It was simply fun to watch them play every week. They had fun playing the game which made it fun for us.
What was the difference Thursday Night? Our boys played basketball - Akron St. LeBron? Street Ball (for the record - I thought the refs called a 'fair' game). They used their hands effectively and just out ran our team.
The funniest cheer of the night from our student section was "YOU AREN'T CATHOLIC!" I'm am happy for the St. V kids to showcase their talent. Otherwise, they wouldn't have that outlet. There is a problem with the system, when you have to run through 3 catholic schools (Mooney, St. V, St. Benedictine) to make it to Columbus only to face more private schools.
So yes Ctown - you are right. It was a "weak" schedule. However, we play public schools that play with the kids in their own district. So it is homegrown talent. Not "imported." I don't think that we should be punished for being "giddy" watching kids that we are proud to call our own!
Well put MVProud! We are so proud of these "homegrown" boys that took us for a great ride!
Ctown...there must be an issue there for you to be deragatory toward the fans. Poland fans show up in big numbers to support their teams, thought that was a good thing.
The student section is second to none! They started the "theme nights" that other schools have now copied, but hey, have fun with it, its HIGH SCHOOL, where your supposed to have fun!
My favorite cheer from the student section was at the Mooney game when they chanted "where's your hometown" and the Mooney kids reply was "we recruit"......enough said!
Didnt take long for the whining to start. People in glass houses?? To be the BEST, shouldnt you want to face, and BEAT THE BEST?? Seems like SVSM had 7 losses this year, someone figured them out...
Was Upper Sandusky a parochial school when they beat Poland by 30 a few years ago? Was Chillicothe a parochial?
Why must you talk about the past Ctown? We live in the present.
OK, I'll talk about the present: Poland got blown away. I'll even talk about the future: Poland won't get past Canton in the next 5 years.
In all seriousness, congrats to Donlow and Baker as they played their hearts out last night and had great years. Baker held his own against a taller player and had a monster game rebounding.
Ctown,
You are probably some fat, old, unathletic person from Mooney or Canfield that sits behind a computer screen and feels like a BA. You probably never played a sport your entire life, unless you count marching band of course. Congrats on being cool. Now get back to your dead end job that you have with no college degree.
Ctown - thank you for acknowledging that Baker and Donlow had monster games and great careers. They are an unbelieveable talent and simply fun to watch. These boards get too negative which caused my first response. You are right - Upper Sandusky and Chillocothie aren't parochial, Poland will probably not make it past Canton in the next 5 years, but these are high school kids. Let them have some fun and ENJOY the accomplishment of a 20-2 season. No need to bash them or us fans for living on Cloud 9 that came crashing down to earth last night. Shouldn't High School sports be fun?
To MVProud,
Nice classy post by you. Sorry to have offended. I was wrong. I will say this, your players are good kids who will succeed in life.
Congratulations Poland Bulldogs!!!!
Ben Donlow.....the ultimate "team" player and outstanding sportsman
Niko Fatimus....a virtual 3 point magician
David Baker....an outstanding player who makes it look easy
Luke Wollet....a "beast"
Dom DeFelice.....an energetic acrobat
It was a joy to watch them play!
Ctown.....what did poland do to you that your so angry????? You speak as if you follow them closely....hmmmmmmmm
To Ctown-
I wasn't offended. Just sticking up for my "new" hometown. I've been in this community for a few years now. I just wanted to stick up for the kids. The fans can be annoyingly "passionate," but show me a local school whose fans aren't. It's just easy to point us out because of our success over the past 5 years (we've been called back to earth). Thanks for the conversation and pointing out where I was wrong. Discussions can be positive on here - we just need to avoid people like mww8 and penguinbird (who I cannot believe still has an account on here).