HOLMES TOWNSHIP — As Steve Mohr faced reporters, the Wynford coach couldn’t help but be impressed by the Upper Sandusky Rams.
“(Upper is the) real deal,” Mohr said. “Even when I wasn’t in coaching, I always loved watching Upper Sandusky play. I love the way they play on the defensive end. I love the way they move the basketball. They are a clinic.”
The Rams placed five players in double figures in blowing past the Royals, 91-58, Saturday night at W.R. Donnenwirth Gymnasium.
With the win, the Rams improved to 7-0 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 11-1 overall. Wynford entered the game just a game back of the Rams in the conference but fell to 6-2 in the N10, 8-4 overall.
The Rams are a deep and talented team. No player scored more than 17 points in the game, but 10 Upper players reached the scoreboard.
“They were just very good tonight,” Mohr said. “Guys who really haven’t shot the ball for them made 3s tonight. I can’t speak highly enough on how they play.
“They’re deep and their defensive pressure is so intense and, if you don’t take care of the basketball, their defense turns into their offense.”
Upper Sandusky coach Jeff Winslow felt that his team has done a better job of moving the basketball.
“I think that’s the key to our success,” Winslow said. “We are balanced. When we weren’t playing so well early on, we weren’t sharing the ball like I wanted. Now, everyone is sharing the basketball.
“We scored 90 points, and no one scored over 20,” Winslow added. “That is really good balance. When you do that you become a lot harder to guard, and I think our kids understand that we have so many kids that can put the ball in the basket and shoot the basketball that we have to find a way to get them the ball.”
Upper Sandusky star Cameron McCreary scored 11 of his 17 points in the first period but sat out most of the next two periods in foul trouble. The Rams got offense out of several different players.
“We go eight deep,” Winslow said. “And we rotate pretty evenly. We have a couple of bigs off the bench and we have a really, really good defender coming off the bench. With our pressure and we play fast all the time, you have to be deep to play that way. And those guys did a good job of coming off the bench and getting guys some rest. I think that does play a factor.”
Gavin Carey led the Rams with 18 points and Brett Montgomery finished with 16 points for the Rams. Mason Vent scored 12 and Evan Young added 11.
Wynford star Josh Crall didn’t come out for the shootaround before the game because of illness, but he came out at game time and, after a slow start, led all scorers with 24 points. Gavin Burris added 10 points for the Royals.
“(Crall) had some issues on the sideline and we weren’t even sure what was going to happen,” Mohr said. “He kind of worked through it and I don’t think it’s anything serious.”
Winslow said that he was pleased with the way the Rams handled the league’s leading scorer.
“I thought our defense was outstanding,” Winslow said. “Crall is really hard to guard, he is so good. And we rotated Cole Sowers, Jaidyn Thiel and Brett Montgomery on him to try and keep fresh bodies on him all night and they did a great job of trying to make things difficult for him. And our guys off the ball did a nice job of helping because he does such a nice job of getting into the paint and drawing fouls.”
Mohr also thought the Rams’ defense was outstanding.
“There just wasn’t a lot that went right for us tonight,” Mohr said. “We didn’t handle their pressure well. We had one day to prepare for that, and we didn’t do a good enough job. You need a lot more time.”
The Royals now find themselves two games behind Upper Sandusky in the N10 race.
“We’ll learn from this and we’re in a good point in our season,” Mohr said. “Obviously, in terms of anything that happens in the league, we no longer control our own destiny. But we’ve got a lot of basketball to play and we’ll learn from this and move on.”
Box score
Upper Sandusky 22 27 22 20 — 91
Wynford 11 11 18 18 — 58
Stats
Upper Sandusky (11-1, 7-0 N10): Shots 34-61; 3-pt shots 9 (Brett Montgomery 4, Cameron McCreary 2, Jackson Smalley, Mason Vent, Evan Young); Free throws 14-18; Rebounds 37; Turnovers 8. Scoring: Jaidyn Thiel 1 0 2, Cameron McCreary 7 1 17, Brett Montgomery 6 0 16, Jackson Smalley 1 0 3, Mason Vent 5 1 12, Cole Sowers 2 0 4, Evan Young 3 4 11, Trent Beamer 3 0 6, Gavin Carey 5 8 18, Owen Knapp 1 0 2.
Wynford (8-4, 6-2 N10): Shots 24-63; 3-pt shots 5 (Josh Crall 3, Isaac Sterrett 2); Free throws 5-10; Rebounds 20; Turnovers 12. Scoring: Matt McBride 1 0 2, Isaac Sterrett 2 0 6, Dustin Brady 3 0 6, Josh Crall 8 5 24, Gavin Burris 5 0 10, Jaron Filliater 2 0 4, Toby Butterfield 1 0 2, Gavin Leffler 2 0 4.
JV: Upper Sandusky 70-44.