Canfield avenges loss to Poland

Alyssa Dill, Summer Sammarone lead Cardinals past Bulldogs in Battle of 224

CANFIELD -- The Battle of 224 definitely lived up to its game of the week billing.

There were five ties and nine lead changes.

The biggest lead all night was eight points in the second quarter.

In the end, the Canfield Cardinals got a little revenge after falling to Poland earlier this season as they came away with a 47-41 victory Thursday night.

Alyssa Dill and Summer Sammarone led the Cardinals (15-6) with 14 and 11 points respectively. Dill also added 10 rebounds.

Both came up huge in Canfield's 15-point fourth quarter with Sammarone scoring seven and Dill adding five.

"Summer's one of those players when the lights are on and it's a competition, she's gonna find a way to make plays," Canfield coach Matt Reel said. "I know she was frustrated that she missed some easy layups that she normally makes. She did a great job just finishing. I thought our defense really really stepped up in those final two minutes. I can't remember too many good shots they had."

With 2:17 remaining, Morgan Kluchar's 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs (17-4) their first lead since the third quarter.

From there, Canfield buckled down with Dill's ensuing field goal giving the Cardinals the lead right back.

The Bulldogs were held scoreless in the final 2:17, but it was Deanna Mike and Sammarone making their free throws to take a one point game to 46-41 with 33.3 seconds left.

"Deanna came in and she had two big free throws for us and a couple of key baskets in the first half," Reel said. "I thought our seniors really did a great job of just kind of willing us to a victory tonight and leading the way."

Reel thought coming in that his team needed to do everything a little bit better. He felt the biggest thing was cutting down on their turnovers.

"I think we did that," he said. "We did a better job of guarding them. The first time they had a lot of easy shots in transition from our turnovers. Tonight they had a few but not nearly as many."

Poland coach Nick Branch felt turnovers were the glaring stat in this matchup.

"We got to take care of the basketball a little bit better than what we did," he added. "It was just a good basketball game. They're a good basketball team. We're a good basketball team. Somebody's got to lose. We got them once. They got us once. That's what makes the rivalry special.

"That's why it's Game of the Week. You know you're going to get everything both teams have and somebody unfortunately has to go down with the loss and it was us tonight. So be it. We learn from it. We get better and that's why we scheduled them because they make us better and we make that better."

Early on though, it looked like the Bulldogs were going to run away with it.

After a 12-9 lead after one, Connie Cougras' 3 made it 19-11 with 4:47 left in the first half.

Canfield called timeout to stop the momentum and it truly changed the tide of the game as they responded with a 6-0 run to get them back within two, 19-17, with 2:48 left.

"It's always nice when you're going into halftime to just get a little momentum going," Reel said. "I thought that was a key point of the game, because they could have really run away with it and we could have gone and hid. Instead of that we kind of got back into the game a little bit."

Poland led 24-23 at the half, but the game became a defensive struggle as Cougras and Mary Brant were held to five points in the third quarter.

"We made some really bad decisions with the basketball, but it wasn't a lack of effort," Blanch said. "The kids were going hard, We're dribbling into areas where there wasn't anywhere to go. Making passes on the fly rather than jump stopping and pivoting and doing the little things.

"When you're playing that hard, the crowd's going, the cameras are going, the adrenaline's all pumping. We don't get these situations very often where it's this kind of an atmosphere and this kind of a game. You want to play and you do the extra things. You give it a little bit more than you normally would"

Cougras led the Bulldogs with 15 points while Brant added 12, but the Bulldogs struggled to find much more offense as Canfield took away the size of Katie McDonald.

McDonald was held scoreless.

"You always want to eliminate somebody who's gonna shoot that many shots inside," Reel said. "I thought Jenna DeLucia and Muckelroy did a really nice job on her."

"Some of the passes we made, we're two feet away from each other and we're firing a fastball at the girl," Blanch said. "It goes out of bounds. I guarantee you the turnovers for both teams were up there. At the end of the day, they got a few more buckets than we did. They got to the free throw line a little bit more than we did and cashed in on it. Those little things add up."

Both teams will use this game as a tournament tune up.

The Cardinals play Warren G. Harding for the third time this season while the Bulldogs play Lakeview for the third time.

Poland will look to get back on track after ending their season with two straight losses.

"We learn from it," Blanch said. "We get better and that's why we scheduled them because they make us better and we make that better. So I'm excited. This is a tournament tune up. We could have scheduled a fluff game to make ourselves feel better for absolutely accomplishing nothing. We schedule these guys. We schedule Howland. Sometimes we beat them. Sometimes we don't. But did you learn something from it? Did you take anything from it? Did you get better? I felt we did."