Canfield eases past rival Poland
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CANFIELD -- The Poland Bulldog and Canfield Cardinal girl basketball teams shared a lot of similarities heading into Friday night's clash at the James W. Watkins gym with both sporting identical 8-1 records.
In addition to their records, both had suffered their lone loss of the season to Salem by nearly the same score in the past couple of weeks. And they each have a deep bench with some of the most talented players in the area. So, something had to give.
The result was a breakout performance by senior guard Carlie Harmon with a game-high 24 points to power the Cardinals to a dominating 54-39 victory. The Cardinals now hold a 9-1 mark while the Bulldogs drop to 8-2.
"Poland and Canfield has obviously been a big rivalry for a long time, so it was a really good win and definitely a confidence boost for us," Harmon said. "We just played how we knew how tonight. We had to come in with 100 percent confidence and play how we know and that's what we did."
"When you are able to beat a good team like Poland, and with the Salem loss still stinging with us from a couple of weeks ago, we knew we were facing another good team," Cardinals head coach Matt Reel said.
Harmon's six three-pointers were in part the difference in the game as the Cardinals drained 10 treys in the contest. They were also solid at the free-throw line by connecting on 6-of-7 shots.
"That was huge," Reel said. "Once you hit a few shots out there, then they have to spread out and we had some driving lanes available and got some layups. We have a lot of girls put in the time to become shooters like that. It's the first time Carlie has shot it that well, and hopefully, she has a few more games like this in her. She is one of our understated players where she has played really good defense and has improved over the years. We have always known she can shoot it like that, it has just been for her to have that confidence to finally do it."
Harmon set the tone with an opening three to get the Cardinals on the scoreboard first as they began the contest with an 11-4 run. They would hold a 15-10 advantage at the close of the first period.
"I don't have the stats in front of me, but they had to have hit ten three-pointers," Bulldogs coach Nick Blanch said. "They were hitting from deep. That's what you do on your home floor, that's what you call a home-floor advantage. You live and die by the three. When they are making threes and we're making twos, it doesn't bode well for the team making twos."
When Harmon converted a layup basket with just under six minutes to go in the second quarter, the Cardinals had built a nine-point lead over the Bulldogs. But the Bulldogs would make a charge with Brooke Rowe connecting on two free throws at the 2:21 mark to cut the deficit down to just three at 22-19. The two teams headed to the locker rooms at halftime with the Cardinals holding a 27-23 advantage.
It appeared that the Bulldogs might make a complete comeback from their deficit when Mary Brant stole a Cardinal pass and converted it into a layup to make it 27-25 less than a minute into the second half. But Harmon once again drained a three to answer and swing the momentum back in Canfield's favor. When Kate Sahli drove to the basket and scored with 1:28 remaining in the period, the Cardinals had built a commanding 18-point lead.
"We talked about our positioning a lot at halftime and getting in the right spot," Reel said. "We weren't there in the first half as much as I would have liked, but we did a much better job in the second half."
Brant would hit a three for the Bulldogs at the third-quarter buzzer to make it 46-33 at the close of the stanza, but that was as close as the Bulldogs would get in the final moments of the contest. The Cardinals would outscore the Bulldogs 8-6 in the final frame to capture the 15-point victory margin.
"I'm very proud of what our kids did, to be honest with you," Blanch said. "I told our kids after the game that I was extremely proud of their effort. You win some and you lose some, but we never stopped playing. It was a good basketball game."
The Bulldogs will return to the court on Thursday when they entertain the Hubbard Eagles in NE-8 action. The Cardinals will play again on Wednesday when they travel to Boardman in another tough rivalry game.