POLAND — It may not have gone into overtime, but the first-place battle in the Northeast-8 Conference between Struthers and Poland was just as dramatic as their first encounter with it going right down to the final buzzer.

With 9 seconds remaining in the contest, Wildcats junior guard Brandon Washington put back up a deflection for the winning basket in the Wildcats’ 36-35 victory.

“I didn’t play that well in the first half. I was frustrated with my team and myself for not getting the production that we needed,” Washington said. “Then, Carson (Ryan) made a great pass to me and I delivered.”

Struthers coach Michael Wernicki was pleased with his team’s poise.

“He picked up the deflection under the basket and didn’t panic,” Wernicki said. “He got the ball on the rim and it bounced around a little bit, but it fell through, and that was good for us.”

The Bulldogs had two chances in the final seconds to win the game when JP Genova and Michael Cougras threw up back-to-back shots from behind the arc. Both attempts hit off the front of the rim to preserve the Wildcats victory.

“We really felt we let that first game slip away from us because it was in overtime,” senior Jared Laczko said of the Wildcats overtime loss to the Bulldogs a couple of weeks ago. “But to be able to come into their place and beat them by one meant everything.”

It was about focus, Washington said.

“We thought about the ‘W’ all week, how we have to come out hard. Poland is a good team, you can’t come out flat,” he said.

Wernicki said his team had the intensity to pull through Friday.

“I don’t think you need a motivating factor in this game,” he said. “Did we want to get it back? Definitely. I would be lying if I said we didn’t want to get it back. But against a team as good as Poland, wanting to win and having the motivation isn’t enough to get the win. You have to play as well as you can play. We were tough tonight, and they were tough. It was just a great game.”

Following a 3-pointer by Laczko with just 3 seconds before the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats enjoyed the largest lead of the game at 30-25 before the Bulldogs made a fourth-quarter run.

Poland went on an 8-2 run to take a 33-32 lead at the 3:27 mark of the fourth period following a shot from behind the arc by JP Genova. The Wildcats scored on a basket by Ryan with 2:40 remaining, followed by two free-throws by Adam Kassem which gave the Dogs a 35-34 lead with only 28 seconds remaining.

The two teams were locked in a back-and-forth battle with the Wildcats holding an 11-9 lead at the end of the first quarter before the Bulldogs regained the lead at the 2:02 mark of the second period.

Trey Metzka broke loose for a slam dunk just before the buzzer as the Wildcat fans went into a frenzy as they took a 19-18 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.

The Bulldogs scored all 18 points of the first half by hitting on six of eight shots from behind the arc. They would not score a basket from the inside until the Stephen Carney sank a basket at the 6:35 mark of the third quarter. They would carry a 21-19 lead before the Wildcats closed the quarter with a 9-4 run to hold the five-point advantage at the end of the period.

“It’s kind of something that happens,” Bulldogs coach Ken Grisdale said. “If you take a look at the bodies they have versus the bodies we have, we’re not going to be successful very much in the paint unless we can get a one-on-one situation where we have some leverage. They are long enough and athletic enough to force us away from the basket. We had to make shots from the perimeter to give ourselves a chance.”

The Wildcats improve to 11-1 on the year and take sole possession of the Northeast-8 at 7-1. The Bulldogs drop to 9-5 on the season and 6-2 in the conference.

“It was exhausting because you had two high-level teams in a tremendous environment,” Wernicki said. “That’s high school basketball. That’s what it gives you. That’s why we do it. That’s why the kids play and why we coach. I’m just happy we had one more (point) on the board.”

There was no lack of effort on the Poland sideline, Grisdale said.

“I’m not hanging my head and I told the kids ‘don’t you dare hang your head. You battled so hard.'” he said. “Again, look at them and look at us. That score shouldn’t be what it was. Our kids just battled, battled, and battled. We didn’t get the loose balls we needed and gave up a couple of rebounds, but it wasn’t for the lack of effort.”

The Bulldogs return Tuesday when they host South Range, while the Wildcats face Uniontown Lake Sunday afternoon in a tournament at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse.