Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Chaney’s Austin Brown, right, drives the ball while being defended by Poland’s Carmine Tukalo on Friday night at Chaney High School.

YOUNGSTOWN — With a lot of eyes around the area fixated on Friday’s matchup, Chaney wanted to set the tone early against Poland.

The Cowboys were aggressive and active right from the opening tip. They trapped, forced turnovers and got out in transition for easy baskets, riding a hot start to down the Bulldogs 70-46 on Youngstown’s west side.

“We always try to set the tone,” Chaney coach Marlon McGaughy said. “But tonight was more important because they got a lot of shooters over there, so we couldn’t let the game get close.”

Chaney got a quick layup for its first basket, then got an alley-oop dunk from Allen Hill off a steal on its second possession of the night.

That play served as an early statement for the Cowboys, as Poland, which made two of its first three shots in the first 90 seconds, did not score again until roughly 90 seconds into the second quarter.

Austin Brown knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in the opening period, as Chaney raced ahead to a 23-5 advantage by the end of the period.

“They’re a really good team,” Poland coach Eric Fender said. “They’re quick, and one thing we knew going in was we had to try and take care of the basketball and limit transition points. We didn’t do that early on, and they got some easy buckets. I think their second bucket of the game was a dunk for one of the Hill kids. Those are things we just can’t have happen.”

With each standing at 6-foot-5, Hill and his brother Allex present a unique matchup in the post for the Cowboys.

Poland had no answer for the twins down low, as they proceeded to block shots and redirect and affect layups on the defensive end of the floor, while also finishing at the basket in the post on the offensive end.

“The two Hill brothers, they’re tall,” Fender said. “We haven’t seen something like that all season.”

Allen Hill paced Chaney with 21 points, while Allex Hill finished with nine, as they combined for 30 points. Brown also had 15 points for the Cowboys.

“They did really well,” McGaughy said. “But as a team, we gotta start dumping it in a little bit more to those big guys because I don’t think they get enough touches.”

Facing a double-digit deficit for most of the night, Poland needed points from somewhere.

It got them from Carmine Tukalo, who came alive in the third quarter to give the Bulldogs some life. He hit four 3-pointers during the period and finished with six made threes on the night to lead Poland with 23 points.

“He’s a real good shooter,” McGaughy said. “He comes off screens and he shoots it well. He can shoot it from deep anywhere. So our gameplan was to not let him shoot, but our gameplan wasn’t as good as I thought it turned out to be.”

Outside of Tukalo, the Bulldogs struggled offensively, shooting 25.5% from the floor overall as no one else finished with more than eight points.

“After the first quarter, we were a little bit shellshocked,” Fender said. “We took a hit, and it took us a little while to get recalibrated. Carmine is the leader. They know that. We know that. And when we start seeing some of his shots fall, it sort of gains some confidence for some of those other guys.”

Poland has a quick turnaround as it heads to Streetsboro today at 5 p.m., while Chaney will head across town to face City Series rival East on Tuesday at 7 p.m.