SYCAMORE — On a night when Wynford star Josh Crall had to work to get his points, the Royals needed other players to step up.
They did just that.
Eight Royals reached the scoring column and backed up Crall’s 20 points as the Royals downed Mohawk, 58-44, in a boys’ Northern 10 Athletic Conference game.
The Warriors held Crall to just nine points over the first three periods, but sophomore Jaron Filliater scored 10 points and the Royals never trailed in the game.
“The difference between this year and what we’ve been previously, (Josh) struggled a little bit, he wasn’t scoring. And other guys stepped up,” Mohr said.
“And I told our kids, give Mohawk credit. Their 2-3 zone caused us problems and we stood around, 25 feet from the basket, didn’t attack gaps, didn’t flash cut,” Mohr added. “We did everything you’re not supposed to do against a zone.”
Mohawk (3-5, 2-3 N10) did tie the game at 31-31 late in the third period on a Tyler Hayman basket, but a Gavin Burris basket gave the Royals a 33-31 lead entering the final period.
From there, Wynford (6-2, 5-1) outscored the Warriors, 17-5, over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter to take a 48-36 lead and put the game away.
Mohawk coach Paul Dunn said that his team lacked confidence to make big shots.
“Probably one of our biggest issues and we talked about it in the locker room, having guys willing and wanting the spotlight to step up and take the big shot,” Dunn said. “Wynford tried to take out our top scorer, Austin Tusing, and we had seven other guys who were on the floor and you have to have confidence that you are going to make that big shot and I just don’t know that we have that confidence right now.”
Mohr said that his young team is getting better every day.
“To our kids’ credit, we were patient, we hung in there and, even though we didn’t play well we still ended up winning by (14) on the road against a team that played some pretty good teams in our league awfully tough,” Mohr said.
Mohr said that changes have forced players into different roles.
“We’re getting a lot of different guys scoring,” Mohr said. “This is about the fourth time this year where we had eight or more guys score. I was just really pleased with the way Isaac Sterrett and Gunnar Coffman and Gavin Leffler played. Those are kids who started for us last year but because we changed our offensive scheme, they’re not starting but they came in and steadied the ship and played well on the offensive and defensive glass and I thought they were the keys to us winning tonight.”
Dunn said that this Mohawk team is young and growing every day.
“I think that stems from our practice demeanor and we have guys that want to work hard in practice every day,” Dunn said. “We’re overall a young team and still learning and reacting and we just didn’t react quickly enough and play well enough down the stretch, especially in the fourth quarter.”
Mohawk won the junior varsity game, 71-23. Toby Butterfield led the Royals with 12 points. Nathan Geary led Mohawk with 17 points and Al Hess added 13.
Box score
Wynford 14 10 9 25 — 58
Mohawk 8 12 11 13 — 44
Wynford (6-2, 5-1 N10): Shots 23-46; 3-pt shots 3 (Josh Crall, Isaac Sterrett, James Schiefer); Free throws 9-12; Rebounds 35; Turnovers 15. Scoring: Gunnar Coffman 2 0 4, Isaac Sterrett 2 0 5, Dustin Brady 1 1 3, Josh Crall 6 7 20, James Schiefer 2 0 5, Gavin Burris 3 0 6, Jaron Filliater 5 0 10, Gavin Leffler 2 1 5.
Mohawk (3-5, 2-3 N10): Shots 16-57; 3-pt. shots 3 (Tyler Hayman, Landen Snyder, Hunter Gottfried); Free throws 9-17; Rebounds 26; Turnovers 9. Scoring: Tyler Hayman 3 0 7, Austin Tusing 3 0 6, Brock Brause 6 3 15, Landen Snyder 2 5 10, Reese Hannam 1 0 2, Hunter Gottfried 1 1 4.
JV: Mohawk 71-23.