POLAND – It’s a sure sign of how far the Poland Regional High School boys’ basketball program has come the last two seasons when we can talk about the Knights avoiding a so-called trap game.
Hidden among emotional Western Maine Conference showdowns against Cape Elizabeth, Greely and Falmouth was Saturday’s home encounter against Fryeburg Academy. Poland should have won, and did win, 40-29, but it admittedly wasn’t the prettiest performance first-year head coach Chris Willer has seen from his squad this winter.
“Beating Cape Elizabeth (on Tuesday night) was a huge win and a really big confidence boost for us,” Willer said. “But you can’t take a night off. Absolutely not in this league.”
Poland (6-5) survived a seven-point Fryeburg run to start the game and essentially shut down the Raiders for the duration. The Knights frazzled Fryeburg into 1-for-13 from the floor in the fourth quarter and 11-for-48 (23 percent) for the game.
Senior center Jon Lecznar led the Knights with 14 points, 13 rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots.
The 6-foot-7 Lecznar and 6-1 Adam Woodbrey (six points, 11 boards) helped neutralize Fryeburg’s 6-7 junior big man Alex Gotzler, while guards Eric Picard, Mimi Knowles, Tyler Merchant and Keegan Fennessy collaborated to keep the Raiders’ chief perimeter threat, Aaron Kasprak, off the board in the second half.
Gotzler and Kasprak each ended the night with nine points for Fryeburg (2-8).
“That’s what we talked about in the huddle, holding them under 30,” said Willer. “And Fryeburg was very disciplined in their zone. They stayed aware of where our shooters were.”
Lecznar scored five points in the final 1:23 of the first quarter to put Poland on top to stay. Senior Brent Cary also fueled a 15-2 run that spanned the first and second quarters with two 3-pointers from the right wing.
“We just had to get our heads all the way into the game,” said Lecznar.
Cary’s second trey with 6:48 remaining put Poland up 15-9, but it was the Knights’ final field goal of the half. Lecznar and Woodbrey combined for three free throws to protect an 18-14 halftime lead.
Poland put together three quick hoops, two Chad Westleigh deuces sandwiched around a Lecznar conversion down low, to build an eight-point lead early in the third. The Knights went 6-for-11 in that quarter. They were 7-for-33 throughout the rest of the game.
Visions of Thursday night’s loss to Greely and next Friday’s trip to perennial power Falmouth may have been dancing in Poland’s head.
“We played three good quarters and one really bad quarter against Greely,” Willer said. “We can’t do that against Falmouth. That’s a big game for us. We have final exams this week, so we have four days to prepare for it.”
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