By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

POLAND – Poland thought it would gain an easy W’ with St. Dom’s on the docket for Saturday night. And, if the Knights only take the overtime consideration, they were right.

The Knights scored the first 10 points of the extra session to overcome a determined effort by the Saints with a 59-50 win.

“We were in a situation we didn’t think we were going to be in, but it’s like I’ve said before, in this league, you can’t take a night off,” Poland coach Chris Willer said. “You’ve got to come every single night and play to the best of your abilities.”

The Knights (7-7) battled back from an eight-point deficit midway through the fourth to force the overtime, then came out more focused in the opening moments of the extra session.

“It was really physical,” junior guard Joe Douglass said. “We weren’t getting a lot of the calls we thought we were going to get but a lot of people like Jon Lecznar and Adam Woodbrey stepped it up in the fourth quarter and overtime.”

Douglass scored all 15 of his points in the second half, including six in overtime. Woodbrey scored all 10 of his points (along with eight rebounds) and Lecznar netted 11 of his 13 (and 15 boards) in the second half.

“Joe Douglass stepped up down the stretch, getting some steals and fast break lay-ups and making good passes,” Willer said.” And Jon Lecznar stepped up. He initiated some contact.”

Woodbrey got the OT started with a layup off the opening tip. Douglass followed with a fast break layup. Keegan Fennessy hit two free throws, then found a wide open Lecznar under the hoop on an out of bounds play along the sideline. Douglass followed with one more bucket before the Saints finally got on the board with a 3-pointer by Justin Richardson (15 points) with just 54 seconds left.

“We kind of lost our composure. We had the lead, we didn’t get a call. We just couldn’t get that one break we needed,” said St. Dom’s coach Dan Leland. “We haven’t been in that situation, and hopefully, we’ll learn from it. Between the lines, we played well. Dead ball situations, we didn’t. I think they probably got eight or 10 points on sideline out of bounds plays.”

St. Dom’s (6-8) was fortunate to be trailing by only one at the half after going 0-for-8 from the field in the second quarter and turning the ball over 16 times in the first 16 minutes.

The Saints’ shooting woes returned in the fourth quarter (1-for-6), but the Knights struggled, too, missing seven of their first eight. The Saints, led by Joe Bonneau, (11 points, six rebounds), shot better and more often from the foul-line more often, however, and were able to build a 43-35 lead with 3:54 left.

Poland got Lecznar more involved in the offense, started to take advantage of its own opportunities from the charity stripe down the stretch and closed regulation with a 9-1 run. They finally tied it at 44 when Douglass drove to the middle of the lane and hit an off-balance five-footer with 43 seconds to go.

“I had no idea that we were down by two. I thought it was tied,” Douglass said. “After it went in, I looked up (at the scoreboard) and was like Oh, wow. It’s tied.’ Then I started thinking Well, what if I’d have missed it.’