Staff photo / Dan Hiner. Girard’s Aly Gassman (33) drives through a few Poland defenders for a layup attempt during the fourth quarter of Monday’s game at Poland Field House.

POLAND — When an environment has been less than favorable over the years, it can put pressure on a team.

However, the Girard girls basketball team took over for an eight-minute stretch and held off Poland 50-36 on Monday night at Poland Field House. It was the Indians’ first win at Poland in years.

The Indians outscored Poland 13-4 in the third quarter after taking a one-possession lead into halftime. Caylee Wilkes led the charge, scoring eight in the period.

“I knew this had to be a big game because last year we lost to Poland two times, and one time was to win the NE-8,” Wilkes said. “It was kinda like revenge here. I think we got it.”

Poland started strong, taking a 14-6 lead midway through the first quarter. But back-to-back and-1s with just over a minute left in the first helped the Indians cut the deficit to 14-11 and get back into an offensive rhythm. A layup by Makenzee White on a cut down the middle of the lane allowed the Indians to go into the second only trailing 16-15.

Girard (12-10, 9-3 Northeast 8) scored the first seven points of the second and at the same time, the Bulldogs could not get a shot to fall. Poland was held scoreless for the first four minutes of the quarter until Isabel Greco knocked down a three.

The Bulldogs (11-11, 6-6 NE8) got a couple shots to fall to get back into the game, but the Indians took a 24-21 lead into the break.

The Indians took control in the third quarter. The lead grew to 35-25 as Girard got behind the Poland defense for easy layups. On the other end of the court, the Bulldogs struggled from the floorl and trailed 37-25 heading into the fourth quarter.

“Pressure like that, if you’re not coming to the basketball and making yourself available, sometimes it leads to bad things. In the third quarter, I thought we really made ouselves available, and we got some easy looks for Wilkes,” Girard head coach Joe Bornemiss said.

Girard led 41-28 with a little over four minutes to play. The Bulldogs continued to battle, and the lead shrunk to 43-35 with 2:59 remaining, prompting an Indian timeout. However, the Indians took care of the business with some additional buckets.

Wilkes was the top scorer with 24 points, Aly Gassman chipped in 15 and White chipped in eight.

Greco led the Bulldogs with 13 points, and Lucy Harrell added eight more.

Poland head coach Nick Blanch said he was proud of his girls for continuing to fight back, but the team has dealt with injuries and inconsistent offense throughout the season, and it came back to bite the ‘Dogs again on Monday.

“Our kids are playing hard, we just don’t have that consistent scorer this year,” Blanch said. “Elliana Thompson’s out. She’s our best player, and she’s been out since December. We’ve missed her all season. Leanna Boccieri just came back tonight, she’d been out a month. We’ve been dealing with injuries this year, and that’s two starters we’ve missed the fortune of.

“But we score 16 in the first quarter and five and four in the next two quarters, and then we finish with 11 in the fourth. We’ve just dealt with those drop offs throughout the year.”

The playoff brackets have been set for over a week, so the outcome wasn’t going to affect the seeding. Additionally, Girard already locked up the NE-8. But there was one thing the Indians wanted.

Girard hadn’t recorded a win at Poland in at least a decade. MaxPreps is missing a result from the 2010-11 season, but the Indians hadn’t earned a win at Poland Field House since the team started logging its results on the site in the 2006-07 campaign.

That ended on Monday, and the Indians will enter the playoffs with another win under their belts.

“I think it gives us so much to look forward to, because it’s a really good team we came to play tonight,” Wilkes said. “We have a lot to look forward to when we play Southeast in the tournament.”

Both teams will start their postseasons on Saturday at 7 p.m. Poland will host Fairview and Girard will travel to Southeast as part of the Division V bracket.