NORTH ROBINSON — It was senior night at Colonel Crawford and Eagles’ coach David Sheldon decided to start all five of his seniors.

It was the first time all year that he had started all five, and all five scored. The alteration to the normal starting lineup may have caused a little bit of a slow start, but in the end, Colonel Crawford still won handily.

The Eagles built a 38-19 halftime lead and then cruised to a 78-42 Northern 10 Athletic Conference victory over visiting Bucyrus at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.

“It was neat to see them all score,” Sheldon said of starting all five seniors. “Credit to Reis Walker. Reis is a leader of this team. He understands his role and he came to me this week and said, ‘Coach, we need to have all five seniors start.’ I think, this day and age, it’s big to be a players’ coach.”

Despite having lost 110-40 in the first meeting between the teams in December, Bucyrus came out with energy and made a game of it in the early going.

“Again, our effort was good. We just don’t have a lot of room for error,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “We were physically outmatched and undermanned. For the kids battling the flu, I thought we came out and played really hard.”

The Redmen tied the game three times in the first period and even grabbed a brief 11-9 lead on a basket by Mike Wise with 2:10 left in the quarter. Colonel Crawford (16-3, 12-2 N10), however, scored the last seven points of the frame to lead 16-11 by period’s end.

“You’re out of synch when you start a different lineup,” Sheldon said. “It’s the first time this year we hadn’t started that same lineup. You’re just sort of out of synch — your rotation, your sub rotation, everything — and you expect that when you do that. So, we got off to a slow start.

“(Lucas) Kozinski had a really good first half for them, too,” Sheldon added. “He’s a good player, he’s averaging 17 a game. The second half, we got it rolling. We started our normal starting five.”

It didn’t take long for the Eagles to get back to “normal.” A 22-8 advantage in the second quarter widened the lead to 38-19 by halftime. Colonel Crawford began to exploit its significant size advantage in the post to control the boards and get second or third shots.

“The thing about being 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-7 is that they’re 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-7 in the fourth quarter too,” Egan said. “Our 6-3 person doesn’t match up all that well with them. Hopefully, we’ll get better from this and go on from there.”

A 40-23 Eagles edge in the second half set the final 36-point separation. Eleven different CC players scored in all.

“We’re very fortunate to have great size,” Sheldon said. “When you’ve got size, you can get second shots. We didn’t shoot well from deep (four of 22 from 3-point range) but we were really good on the glass and finishing.

“Tuesday night, we hit 11 3s,” Sheldon added. “Tonight, we only hit four 3s. That’s why this team is 16-3, because of the versatility of being able to go inside or out.”

The Eagles ended with a 45-22 bulge on the boards, including 19-1 on the offense end.

Overshadowed by the explosion of the Colonel Crawford redwoods was the effort of 5-foot-6 Bucyrus (2-16, 2-11) junior, Nick Middleton, who scored nine points among the trees.

“He missed a few layups but a lot of that is fatigue,” Egan said. “We’re asking Nick to do an awful lot. He’s had a very good season for us and he’s trying to be a leader as best he can and we’re just appreciative of his efforts.”

Middleton seconded Kozinski’s team-high 12 points. Joe Rager had five rebounds for the Redmen.

Gavin Feichtner had a game-high 18 points for Colonel Crawford, fellow senior Jordan Fenner had 14 and Chase Walker added 12. Reis Walker had 12 rebounds.

“The thing with our program is, with our depth, is there’s a lot of jayvee guys for me that would be playing on varsity teams,” Sheldon said. “We’re fortunate that these guys have bought in and they know that their turn will come next because of the success and the talent we’ve had over the years. That’s a credit to these guys sticking with the program.”

“It’s certainly a learning experience,” Egan said. “But it’s an experience that ought to send a message, that if they’re not ready to dedicate themselves in March, April, May, June and July to being basketball players, then we’re going to get the same result, year in and year out.”

Colonel Crawford also rolled to a 78-13 win in the junior varsity game. Mason McKibben had 17 points and Carson Feichtner added 15 for the Eagles. Karson Kimmel topped the Redmen with seven points.

Box score

Bucyrus                           11       8     10     13 — 42

Colonel Crawford       16     22     26     14 — 78

Bucyrus (2-16, 2-11 N10): Shots 16-41; 3-pt. shots 3-11 (Mike Wise, Joe Rager, Nick Middleton); Free throws 7-12; Rebounds 22 (Joe Rager 5); Turnovers 19. Scoring: Lucas Kozinski 5 2 12, Joe Rager 1 2 5, Zach Delaney 1 0 2, Mike Wise 3 0 7, Grady Jackson 3 0 6, Nick Middleton 3 2 9, Gabe Higginbotham 0 1 1.

Colonel Crawford (16-3, 12-2 N10): Shots 30-66; 3-pt shots 4-22 (Mason Studer, Jordan Fenner, Seth Miller, Brenden Grady); Free throws 14-22; Rebounds 45 (Reis Walker 10); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Mason Studer 2 1 6, Reis Walker 3 2 8, Jordan Fenner 6 1 14, Brock Ritzhaupt 1 1 3, Carter Valentine 2 2 6, Gavin Feichtner 8 2 16, Mason McKibben 1 0 2, Seth Miller 1 0 3, Chase Walker 4 4 12, Carson Feichtner 1 1 3, Brenden Grady 1 0 3.

JV: Colonel Crawford 78-13.