Once the dust of a hard-fought game settled, the Bulldogs walked away with a 37-29 victory on their home court.

Poland ended last season as a regional finalist and started off this season 3-0, but Bulldogs coach Nick Blanch wants his team to stay humble.

“It feels good, it’s one day at a time,” he said. “We never look too far ahead, but honestly we’ve just got to stay healthy and stay hungry and just keep playing together.

“That’s the biggest thing. We love each other and that says a lot. We pull for one another. It isn’t about who gets what, it’s about us and that says a lot about this group and the leaders that we have.”

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Brooke Bobbey, left, of Poland plays defense, while Gabby Lamparty of South Range drives toward the paint during the second half.

The Bulldogs had an early 10-2 advantage to start the ballgame and led 13-8 going into the second quarter.

South Range chipped away at the Bulldogs’ lead throughout the second quarter and eventually took a 16-15 lead with 3:53 left before halftime. Poland immediately responded with a 7-1 run to end the first half, which allowed them to carry a 22-16 lead into the intermission.

South Range came out of halftime on a 7-0 run to take a one-point lead midway through the third quarter, but Poland struck back with another run, 11-0, to push the lead to 33-23 going into the final quarter.

Both teams buckled down on defense in the fourth, but not before South Range cut the lead to five points at 34-29. That’s as close as the Raiders (2-2) would get.

Jackie Grisdale, a guard for the Bulldogs who scored a game-high 17 points, respected her opponent.

“We knew that they (South Range) were going to be really good and really athletic and really aggressive coming in,” she said.

“So we prepped hard for that. Our prep team did a great job of preparing us for it, and I thought we were prepared to play hard and that’s what we did.”

“I thought I shot the ball well.” Grisdale said “I thought my teammates made great passes to me to get the ball on open shots, so that I could make the shots.

“But I thought we did a great job attacking their zone, driving in gaps, and finding each other outside and opening up lanes for each other.”

South Range coach Jeff Fishel saw his team play hard on the court and wasn’t discouraged following the loss.

“That was probably one of the most fun games I’ve ever coached in,” he said. “Super proud of how hard our girls played. Poland sets a standard in this league, and we have a world of respect for them and the way they go about their business.”

Being that it was an early season Northeast-8 matchup, Fishel knew both teams would be physical on the court.

“I think both teams understood how important this game was and when the intensity and emotions are ramped up like that, it tends to be a physical game, especially within the league,” he said.

“So their girls did it clean, our girls did it clean, and that’s the way basketball is supposed to be played.” he said.

Izzy Lamparty led the Raiders with 10 points and was followed by Bree Kohler with 8 points.

Although Poland walked away with the win, Blanch still sees some things that can be fixed.

“Taking care of the basketball a little bit more, there was a lot of things where I felt it was unforced turnovers, like things that we did to ourselves,” he said.

“Looks that we didn’t take advantage of and those are things that fall on me, we have to do a better job getting them to understand what looks to have. So again, that’s on me and they did a good job stepping up.”

Grisdale understands that the standard is high for Poland (3-0) following its recent success, and is happy to start the season on a high note.

“It’s really exciting, we had a lot of success last year, so I know that inspires all of us to try to do the same this year,” she said. So I think we’re excited, really enjoying each other as a team and it’s been really fun playing together.”