Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Poland’s Leanne Williams drives into the lane against a Pymatuning Valley defender on Saturday.

ANDOVER — Going back and forth the entire contest, Pymatuning Valley played lockdown defense in the fourth quarter, stifling the Poland offense to take down the Bulldogs 50-48 in a Division III, Northeast 3 sectional bracket final matchup.

Taking down a team with Poland’s pedigree is a feather in the cap for a young Lakers team that’s been searching for its confidence all year.

“I think that Poland is a great team, but I think that kind of goes to show that our girls never knew how good we really are,” Pymatuning Valley coach Geena Gabriel said. “And I think today kind of put us on that pedestal of, ‘We’re actually a really good team,’ and I think that that definitely kind of brought us together, so I’m really glad that we came up with a win tonight.”

Coming off a Poland timeout, the Lakers got a pair of quick buckets to take a 47-45 lead, which they would hold onto.

“It’s something that we ran in practice,” Gabriel said. “I said if we find that little girl screener hard, we’ll have that girl wide open on the inside. Sure enough, that was there. (We) laid it in and after that, I think the girls are like, we got this and that’s what the confidence kind of built up. Got that nice little steal there that put us up again by two, and I think the girls were locked in on defense. I think that was our biggest thing today. And that’s what we did.”

The Bulldogs would tie it up at 48-48, but a bucket from Lakers sophomore Sadie Paul with just two seconds left proved to be the difference maker.

Zoey Painter had a dominant performance on Saturday, scoring 30 points in the win.

Following a 59-31 loss to Badger at the tail end of January, the Lakers got a wake-up call. From that point on, they ran through the rest of their schedule with just one blemish, a 39-30 loss to Maplewood. Their growth was apparent and Gabriel chalks it up to confidence and team defense.

“We’ve grown tremendously. I think the biggest thing was our confidence. We were just kind of like, ‘Oh, we don’t want to be too selfish’ and I had to tell the girls, if you’re open, shoot the ball. If you’re not open, find that next girl open and have her shoot it,” Gabriel said. “I think we’ve definitely grown from then, and our press is definitely what set us apart tonight. I think our defense fueled our offense and that’s what we’ve been lacking all season. When we run sets, we don’t run sets very well, but when our defense plays and we get steals in wide open layups like that, that’s how we manage to stay in the game.”

Poland declined to comment after the game. The Bulldogs ended their season at 14-9.

The Lakers have another tall task up ahead, as Pymatuning Valley takes on No. 1 seed Warrensville Heights in the district semifinals. Start time is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at North Ridgeville High School.

With a young squad, and a lone senior on the roster, the Lakers hope that, win or lose, the game provides some valuable experience to take into next season.

For a program gearing up to take that next step of development, facing off against one of the best teams in Northeast Ohio is a good measuring stick.

“I think that it’s really great that we get to see the number one seed because we don’t always play elite competition around here,” Gabriel said. “I think it’s nice that we’re going to see different aspects and things. It seems really good, and I think that’s going to fuel us for next year, because we’re only we’re only losing one senior so I think it’s going to be nice to say ‘Hey, girls, this is how the number one team plays and this is where we can be if we put in the work this summer.'”

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