Staff Photo/Neil Madhavan. Girard’s Michael Palmer (left) dribbles across the baseline in search of an open teammate on Friday night against Poland’s JP Genova (right).
GIRARD – Girard has had a lot of tied games in recent days.
First, it was a narrow four-point loss to Salem on Jan. 3, followed by three- and four-point wins over Jefferson and Hubbard last week.
On Friday night, the Indians pulled out of a close game by enduring a bad game against Poland, 40-37 in overtime.
“I thought we hung our hats on defense and got breaks and rebounds when we needed them,” Girard coach Craig Hannon said. “It wasn’t our best offensive night in the gym, but I thought we found a way to get two pit stops when we needed it and then Mike Palmer took the biggest hit of his career to force the overtime, and here we are.”
With 50 seconds remaining in regulation time, the Indians lost to Poland by three points.
Although Girard struggled offensively – shooting 34.3% from the floor – the Indians needed a bucket if they were to have a shot at overtime. By then, Poland had taken a 10-2 series lead in the fourth quarter.
With time running out, Palmer found he had space and with just over 20 seconds to go, he shot in third place. The Indians then managed to get two misses from the Bulldogs as Poland looked for the winning shot in the dying seconds.
“What I told them (at the end of the period) was that despite the lack of shots, we have to find a way to defend,” Hannon said of the late game situation. “I kept telling them, do, miss or whatever, keep playing defense, rebound and try to make it a one-possession game, and we were able to do that. It was just a messing up all the little things we were supposed to do to win this game.”
Hannon praised Girard’s ability to reach the free-throw line and shoot for the charity strip, a key difference in the game, especially when points were hard to score on the field. The Indians finished the series 12 for 15 and went into overtime 7 for 8.
Poland’s plan for this evening was simple – ‘Sit down and defend yourself’. The Bulldogs wanted to maintain their defensive formation and stay tight in their disciplined 2-3 zone.
“Now we’re average [47] points per game,” Poland coach Eric Fender said. “We knew we had to sit down and defend ourselves. We capped them at 40 and gave them a chance to win at the end, which is what we wanted to do.
The bulldogs were happy that Girard had come to them. They rarely widened the area and chased the Indians beyond the three-point line. For example, a minute before the end of the third quarter, Girard took the ball and led with five. Instead of coming out and putting pressure on the Indians, Poland was content to let Girard hold the ball and dribble for the full half of the time.
“We (just) worked together, played as a group and communicated well,” Fender said. “We made a deal, we found (Thomas) Cordero and their shooters. Also, some of their other guys are out tonight. We stayed (in the area) and it worked for us.
But in the end, the Bulldogs struggled to generate enough tackles to trail Girard into overtime.
“We had a lot of games where we lost two or three points and just couldn’t convert,” Fender said. “Our kids play hard and don’t give up. It was visible (Friday evening). We have another chance for them to come to us and I’m sure we’ll be ready and we’ll have another chance.
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