Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Poland’s Sarah Forsyth, left, shoot s a three-point shot over Struthers’ Faith Stellato, right, Monday night at Struthers Fieldhouse. Forsyth scored nine points in Poland’s 60-44 win over Struthers.

STRUTHERS — Back on Dec. 22, Struthers and Poland played down to the wire, but the Bulldogs ended up prevailing by one.

At the time, both teams looked to be evenly matched — they both defended well and shot the ball well, but Poland made one more play at the end, knocking down a pair of free throws to pull out the victory.

However, that was back at the beginning of conference play, and after both teams have almost completed the regular season gauntlet, Monday night’s meeting was a different story.

With control of the Northeast-8 Conference race on the line with just two conference games remaining in the regular season, Poland seized control at the top of the standings with a dominant performance from start-to-finish, beating Struthers 60-44.

“I told them that this was like an eight-round fight,” said Poland head coach Nick Blanch. “Every four minutes of each quarter, we had to come out and weather the storm. We knew it was going to be loud and intense. We knew that Struthers was a good shooting team and Chloe (Neider) was coming off a 36-point performance. My big thing was…let’s get through that first four minutes and go from there and the kids did a really good job with that tonight.”

The Bulldogs answered Blanch’s call, delivering an early haymaker and knockdown in the first half, doing it on both sides of the floor.

Offensively, Poland scored 22 points in the first quarter on 8-of-12 shooting. Then defensively, the Bulldogs limited the Wildcats to just two points in the second quarter (1-of-14 from the floor) enroute to a 26-point halftime lead.

“We didn’t hit shots,” said Struthers head coach Bill Neider. “We had a couple early, but tip your hat to (Poland), they did a good job defensively and made us work for it a little bit. I thought on offense we weren’t patient enough sometimes and didn’t work the ball around to get good looks.”

Coming off her 36-point performance against Girard on Thursday, Poland kept Chloe in check, holding her to 14 points on just 3-of-18 shooting, including just two points in the first half.

The Wildcats are resilient though, and despite their halftime deficit, came out with a renewed sense of purpose after the intermission, scoring 32 second-half points.

“We talked about just taking it one possession at a time,” Bill said about facing the large deficit. “You just have to keep trying, whether it’s getting a stop or having a good offensive possession. But it is hard because you have to be more aggressive. You have to go more full court and pressure the ball a little bit. When you do that, good teams expose you and get good looks and (Poland) did a nice job of that.”

Carrying the load offensively for Poland was Mary Brant, who finished with a game-high 22 points to lead the Bulldogs.

In the first half, Brant was aggressive with the ball, driving into the lane and getting to the free-throw line, while in the second half, she proved to be more of a facilitator, helping handle and move the ball around for the Bulldogs, while also knocking down some open looks.

“She’s not worried about what she does on the floor, that’s what makes her special,” Blanch said. “She doesn’t come out here looking at the scoreboard and trying to score. Mary Brant is just as happy with one point as she would be if she scored 30 points. …She’s one of those kids that will show up no matter what — good day, bad day, she’s putting her full foot forward and these kids feed off that. She probably doesn’t even know what the stats are to be honest with you and that’s what makes her a great teammate because she’s here for the team and could care less about herself.”

With the win, Poland improves to 15-3 and 11-1 in the Northeast-8 and sits alone atop the standings with a one-game lead on Struthers, who falls to 13-7 overall and 10-2 in conference. Next up for the Bulldogs is a trip to Hubbard on Thursday, while the Wildcats will host Niles on Thursday, as well.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com