Poland advances, Canfield is next

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Lakeview lost,
58-47, in the
Division II
district semifinal.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

BOARDMAN — Defense and balanced scoring were the main ingredients to Poland's 17-3 regular season. So it was no surprise that the Bulldogs relied on those facets of the game to post a 58-47 victory over Lakeview Wednesday night in a Division II district semifinal.

Poland (19-3) will face Canfield Saturday night with the district championship on the line. The Cardinals handed the Bulldogs two of their defeats this season.

"Our program for the past 14 years has been based on defense. You have to stop people first and then you have to rebound," Poland coach Ken Grisdale said. "I was happy with our defense tonight, but I think we gave up too many second-shot opportunities.

"We've had balanced scoring all season," Grisdale said. "We've got three guys averaging in double figures and two more at eight or nine points a game. That makes us difficult to defend when we execute offensively."

Poland scorers

Wednesday's scoring balance included 17 points from Chris Lovell, 14 from Ben Umbel, 13 from Lou Coppola and 10 from Anthony DeFelice. Coppola added eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs' other starter, senior guard Charlie Carchedi, paced the defensive effort, guarding Lakeview's sharpshooting senior guard Dustin Opalka.

Though Opalka led Lakeview (16-6) with 19 points, including a five-for-eight performance from 3-point range, Carchedi made him work for those points.

"Opalka is the key to their offense; he's a great player," Grisdale said. "We just put our best defender, Carchedi, on him and told him to do the best he could. He did a great job and we had people behind him to help out."

Jon Kittle added nine points for Lakeview, Mike Marando had eight and Mark Novotny seven. Greg McCumber corralled nine rebounds and Robert Franks grabbed six for Lakeview which shot 11-of-23 from 3-point range.

Early advantage

Poland scored the last eight points of the first quarter to open up an 18-9 advantage.

Though Lakeview never got closer than four points the rest of the way, the Trumbull Athletic Conference champions would not go away. Poland led 24-18 at halftime and opened a 31-20 lead three minutes into the second half.

A pair of 3-pointers by Marando and one by Opalka left Lakeview trailing 33-29, then Poland closed out the third quarter with an 8-1 run for a 41-30 edge. In the fourth quarter, the lead never was fewer than eight.

"Poland is a great team and we knew coming in we had to play very well," Lakeview coach George Lanterman said. "We were doing the things we wanted, taking the ball to the basket, but our shots just weren't falling when we needed them to.

"Every time we got within four or five a loose ball would roll to them, or they would get a tipped pass," Lanterman said. "It just wasn't our night, I'm not making excuses or taking any credit away from Poland. Our kids played hard and I'm really proud of them, but it seemed when we needed a bucket or a stop we just couldn't get it."

The winners held Lakeview to 35 percent (17-of-48) shooting, but Lakeview stayed in the game with its 3-point shooting. Poland shot 46 percent (23-of-50).

Thursday, March 8, 2007