Poland and Springfield have a head start on their development.

The two teams hoped to get a step closer to putting everything together as the teams met Tuesday at Poland High School. The Bulldogs edged out the Tigers, 59-51.

Both schools advanced to the final four in their respective football divisions, while the teams’ basketball coaches are still putting the pieces in place.

“We’re still in an earlier phase than most teams, with them going to a state championship game and we were in a state semifinal in football,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. “We didn’t get our football guys until the beginning of December, and they didn’t get theirs until the second week in December.”

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Springfield sophomore Beau Brungard received a pass from a teammate. Brungard finished with six points.

A compressed season leads to a lot more lineup experimentation, especially when injuries begin to appear.

“We’re still in that stage where we’re trying to figure out how the pieces fit together,” Grisdale said. “We had a couple of our players out tonight, so we’re working on mixing and matching. I think he’s doing a lot of the same.”

That mixing and matching meant it was expected to be a battle. Tigers coach Steven French got exactly what he anticipated.

“Anytime you’re playing Poland, you know they’re obviously very well-coached,” French said. “They play so hard and feels like they get every rebound, every loose ball and I think their second-chance opportunities hurt us in the end.”

After giving up the lead briefly in the second quarter, the Bulldogs were able to reclaim the lead going into halftime — holding a four-point advantage. Coming out of the break, Poland held the Tiger offense to eight points — allowing the Bulldogs to pull away.

“We made a couple adjustments,” Grisdale said. “We told him that we needed to stop penetration. They were they were really hurting us on dribble penetration in the first half. We had no answer for their big kid. We told them just to keep battling. Go out, it’s a rivalry game, put it all on the line.”

The big kid Grisdale mentioned was Springfield senior Drew Clark. Clark scored a game-high 27 points and reached a milestone, scoring his 1,000th point as a Tiger in the fourth quarter.

“It feels great,” Clark said. “I put a lot of work in these past four years. It’s been really fun for me. My teammates always helping me along the way. It’s just a great feeling.”

Michael Cougras paced Poland with 20 points.

Springfield looks to rebound at home in a league game Friday at Jackson-Milton, while the Bulldogs host rival Struthers.

Last time around, Poland pulled off an overtime win and Grisdale wants to be sure his team is ready for a fight like the last game.

“It’s going to be a heck of a game,” he said. “We were fortunate. We went down there and were able to get them in overtime by a point the first time. I’m sure they’re going to come here pretty fired up and I wouldn’t expect anything less from them. They’re a quality team. We better get good practices the next two days.”