SALEM — Visiting Poland dominated the glass and its swarming zone defense hindered Salem’s offense as the Quaker boys basketball team dropped a 57-37 independent setback to the Bulldogs Tuesday night in John A. Cabas Gymnasium.

Poland dominated the glass 48-23 and got many second and third looks at the basket throughout the contest which resulted in points.

“That (rebounding) is one of the things we try to get the kids to understand,” said Poland head coach Eric Fender. “Not all of those are going to go, so we’ve got to crash the glass. As long as we get somebody back defensively, we’ve got some athletic kids to go after it.”

“They beat us up, that’s 2-1 (on the boards) about every night, really,” said Salem head coach Jeff Andres. “Our guys are a little bit reluctant to get a body on people and be physical. A lot of that is just heart, desire and effort, those sort of things, and right now we’re missing some of that.”

With the setback, Salem fell to 1-6. The Quakers have lost five games in a row.

“It’s us and our inability to do a lot of basic things,” added Andres, who had a long talk with his team in the postgame locker room. “Obviously we gave them some opportunities and they took it to us, and it’s not the first time it’s happened this year, and we’ve got to figure this out. I feel we’re better collectively than what we’re showing.”

With the win, Poland improved to 4-2.

Poland’s cat quick senior guard Carmine Tukalo was all over the court on offense and defense and took game-scoring honors with 22 points.

“It’s a daily expectation for him (Tukalo),” praised Fender. “He’s doing a fantastic job. Carmine’s put a lot of work in and he deserves what comes his way, so we’re happy to see the early success, we just need to keep it going. We’ve got four seniors right now that are doing well and we’ve got some young guys who are stepping up and starting to figure out their roles.”

Poland placed two other players in double figures as Nick Nittoli added 16 markers and Jason Vesey finished with 10 points.

Salem, which was forced deep on the perimeter by Poland’s defense, had one player in double digits as Ty Manion finished with 13 points, including three of the Quakers’ six three-pointers in the game. Teammates Jack Andres and Ben Severe were next in line with seven points apiece.

“We’re going to figure it out,” said Andres. “We’re going to enjoy our families (over the holidays) for a couple days and reflect a little bit, and hopefully get one next week.”

Poland, which out-rebounded the Quakers 11-5 in the first quarter, jumped out to an 11-5 lead after one period.

The Bulldogs increased their lead to as much as 16 points (26-10) in the second quarter, following a fielder by Tukalo with 38 seconds left before half. Salem trimmed the deficit to 14 points (26-13) at intermission.

“We slowed them down (with the pressure in the zone),” observed Fender. “They didn’t force a lot of shots, but it definitely slowed them down and made them work for a little bit and got us a little bit of rest. We’re a little thin right now with some illness, so to be able to extend some of those defensive opportunities and get some rest defensively was a good thing for us.”

With its dominance on the boards continuing in the third quarter, the Bulldogs built their advantage to 18 points (42-24) after three periods.

Poland took its largest lead of the game at 22 points (55-37) with 3:24 left when Fender emptied his bench.

Game notes

• Salem’s all-time leading scorers in boys and girls basketball, as well those who reached or surpassed 1,000 career points during their illustrious Quaker careers were honored during Tuesday’s game. All recipients or persons representing them were presented with large plaques for their accomplishments.

Boys basketball players honored included Jack Alexander (1956 class) Bill Beery (1963), Brian Petrucci (1992), Ryan Bush (2013) and DJ Pullie (2016). Girls players honored included Tammy Bailey (1981), Amy Goodballet (1985), Valerie Scott (1994), Kelly Paxson (2000), Alyson Cotter 2004), Amy Scullion (2010), Chloe Cheresne (2017), Kyla Jamison (2021) and Rylee Hutton 2024).

Ryan Bush (1,313 points) and Valerie Scott (1,701 points) are Salem’s all-time leading scorers in boys and girls’ basketball, respectively.

• Salem returns to action Tuesday evening when it travels to East Palestine to take on the Bulldogs.

“Their coach does a real nice job with them, they play really hard and I know they’re going to be looking forward to playing against the Quakers, but we’ve got to worry about ourselves,” reflected Andres. “We’ve got to worry about ourselves and try to get a little better at the things we’re more than capable of doing but for whatever reason we’re not doing consistently.”

• Salem staged a tremendous second-half comeback, erasing a double-digit deficit to clip the Bulldogs 56-53 in the junior varsity game.

Poland plays at arch-rival Canfield next Tuesday night.

P: 11-15-16-15–57

S: 5-8-11-13–37

POLAND SCORING: Brady Kendall 1-0-2, Anthony Delluomo 0-0-0, Carmine Tukalo 9-1-22, Pete Zoumis 2-0-4, Nick Nittoli 5-2-16, Nate Cene 0-0-0, A. Dedo 0-0-0, D. Delluomo 0-0-0, Maddox Purins 1-1-3, Jaxon Vesey 4-2-10. TEAM TOTALS: 22, 4-13: 57

SALEM SCORING: Ty Manion 4-2-13, Deontay Steele 1-0-2, Jack Andres 3-1-7, Karsen Dangel 1-0-3, Max Zacharius 0-0-0, Ben Severe 2-3-7, Weston Mango 0-1-1, Zane Suarez 0-0-0, Cam Martin 1-0-3, Owen Davidson 0-0-0, Braydon Fennema 0-1-1. TEAM TOTALS: 12, 7-12: 37

Three-point goals: Poland 5 (Carmine Tukalo 3, Nick Nittoli 2); Salem 6 (Ty Manion 3, Jack Andres 1, Karson Dangel 1, Cam Martin 1).

Total fouls: Poland 11, Salem 10. Fouled out: none.