HOLMES TOWNSHIP — For the first time in the last 14 days, Wynford had its top post player, senior Averi McMillan.

And she was a welcome sight to coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon.

“This is Averi McMillan’s first game back and this is her best game of the year so far,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

Wynford’s game plan was obvious from the first period: pound the basketball inside. And McMillan responded.

McMillan, who is the sixth-best scorer in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, scored 19 points and added five rebounds as the Royals downed Colonel Crawford, 53-40, Friday night.

With the win, the Royals improved to 7-3 in the N10, 8-3 overall, while the Eagles dropped to 7-5 in the league, 9-6 overall.

After missing two weeks of practices and games, McMillan said she was a little rusty early in the game, scoring just two points in the first period.

“I was definitely a little bit rusty at first, but I thought I was trying to get back into the groove of things and be more normal,” McMillan said.

“We were able to work really well as a team and kinda flowed together,” she added.

McMillan said that she didn’t have a lot of problem getting air during the game.

“I normally always do,” McMillen said about getting her air. “but I thought it was kinda normal. It wasn’t that bad.”

Wynford took a 13-7 lead after the first period before McMillan scored the Royals’ first two buckets of the second period, taking a 17-9 lead.

The Royals held a 23-18 lead at the break.

From that point, Wynford held the Eagles to just six free throws in the third period, no field goals, and took control of the game, taking a 37-24 lead into the final frame.

Colonel Crawford coach Kyle Fenner said that her team didn’t match Wynford’s intensity.

“We didn’t do much right tonight,” Fenner said. “We turned the basketball over and we didn’t make shots. We had shots we needed to make, and we didn’t play with much passion, much intensity.

“(Wynford was) really good tonight,” Fenner added. “They took it to us; they weren’t standing around; they showed us what they were going to get done and we just didn’t match it.”

Taylor-Sheldon said that her team’s intensity turned into defense.

“After the first couple of possessions, I thought we played tooth-and-nail; we got a lot more loose balls,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “We just played with a higher level of intensity.

“There in the fourth quarter, they scored on three straight possessions, and before, we had some really long stretches of defensive stops,” Taylor-Sheldon added. “Either we had gotten a steal or one contested shot.”

Wynford got excellent balance offensively. Guard Kaylee Smith backed McMillan with 12 points and Lyndie Williams added eight.

“We hit some big shots to widen the gap but, definitely, this is our biggest rivalry, and, once we got over the first three couple of the game, we felt like we deserved to win and tried to play it out that way,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

Hannah Plesac led the Eagles with 11 points, but Crawford struggled shooting the ball all night. The Eagles made just six of 32 shots in the first three periods and finished with 11 of 44.

“You would think we could get up, coming here to Wynford, playing a rival,  but that’s on us. We have to be better than that,” Fenner said.

Taylor-Sheldon said her defense did a nice job of slowing the Eagles down.

“Crawford has some good shooters and the first time we played, Risner, Dzugan, and Teglovic hit some 3s against us,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “So, it’s going to be live or die; there were a couple of games for us earlier in the year we lived or died by the 3. That’s kinda like a gamble. You have to figure out how to stop Teglovic and you have to pick your poison and that’s what we decided to do today.”

Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game, 40-16. Addison Kemery paced the Eagles with 12 points. Alexis Stevely led Wynford with seven.

Box score

Colonel Crawford     7      11        6       16 — 40

Wynford                     13      10      14       16 — 53

Colonel Crawford (9-6, 7-5 N10): Shots 11-44; 3-pt. shots 4 (Theresa Dzugan 2, Kaylyn Risner, Hannah Plesac); Free throws 14-23; Rebounds 28; Turnovers 17. Scoring: Mallory Plesac 1 5 7, Theresa Dzugan 2 0 6, Jenna Maddy 0 2 2, Hannah Plesac 4 2 11, Kaylyn Risner 1 3 6, Allison Teglovic 3 2 8.

Wynford (8-3, 7-3 N10): Shots 21-45; 3-pt. shots 3 (Kaylee Smith 2, Lyndie Williams); Free throws 8-14; Rebounds 21; Turnovers 13. Scoring: Kaylee Smith 5 0 12, Mia Leuthold 1 2 4, Averi McMillan 8 3 19, Grace Stucky 1 1 3, Lyndie Williams 3 1 8, Katie Wagner 3 1 7.

JV: Colonel Crawford 40-16.