CRESTLINE — The Colonel Crawford girls basketball team came into Thursday night’s contest at Crestline in the second of back-to-back games.

The Eagles drilled Monroeville, 73-38, Wednesday night, and coach Kyle Fenner said she hoped the energy her team used would carry over against the Bulldogs.

She didn’t have to worry.

The Eagles used strong full-court pressure to hold the Bulldogs to just 32 shots in the Eagles’ 51-28 win Thursday night.

Crawford improved to 13-9 on the season, while Crestline fell to 4-12.

Crawford forced 23 Crestline turnovers in the game, something that pleased Fenner.

“I’d like to think that it helped us,” Fenner said of the back-to-back games. “We got on the floor and we played pretty well last night. We caused a lot of havoc in our full-court defense last night, and I think we brought a lot of energy and a lot of things we did into tonight’s game.”

Fenner felt that her defense has picked up in recent games.

“We worked really, really hard the last two or three days in practice,” Fenner said. “We weren’t very happy when we went down to Ridgedale Saturday. We worked really hard on gap help and helping on getting back and getting the ball and getting out in transition. We were better today.”

Crestline coach Kyle Strauch also said that the Eagles’ defensive effort was the difference in the game.

“Credit to (Colonel Crawford),” Strauch said. “That’s just the defense they play. We knew going in that everything we were going to get we had to earn. We couldn’t give them free possessions.

“Unfortunately, we had too many careless turnovers and you can’t do that against a team as good as them on the defensive end,” Strauch added.

Defense was critical for the Eagles, because they didn’t shoot the ball well, hitting just 10 of 30 shots in the first half and nine of 23 in the second.

“We did not shoot it well in the first half,” Fenner said. “We didn’t shoot it as well as we did last night. I don’t know if it was tired legs or what.”

But Crawford’s defense more than made up for their inability to shoot the ball.

Crestline managed just six points in each of the first two periods as the Eagles held a 25-12 lead at the half.

“How hard they play and how fundamental they are,” Strauch said of the Eagles. “They just know where to be at. As a program, that’s what we strive to be defensively. They went a little bit of zone in the second quarter. They don’t play too much zone but they’re a well-seasoned team in it.”

Crawford held a 42-16 lead going into the final frame, before Crestline outscored Crawford, 12-9, in the final eight minutes.

Fenner said she was happy with the way her team took care of the basketball.  Crawford finished with 11 turnovers.

“That’s a goal every night,” Fenner said of her team’s ability to take care of the ball. “We would like to limit the turnovers below 10 and we did a pretty good job tonight.

“It’s nice to have back-to-back wins. You can build off that and go into the tournament now.”

Allison Teglovic paced the Eagles with 13 points and Kaylyn Risner added 12. Hannah Delong led the Bulldogs with 11 points.

Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game, 42-15.

Box score

Colonel Crawford   13    12     17       9 — 51

Crestline                      6       6       4     12 — 28

Colonel Crawford (13-9): Shots 19-53; 3-pt. shots 4 (Jenna Maddy 2, Kaylyn Risner 2); Free throws 9-13; Rebounds 35; Turnovers 11. Scoring: Mallory Plesac 2 0 4, Corin Feik 0 1 1, Ally Hocker 1 0 2, Jenna Maddy 3 0 8, Hannah Plesac 1 0 2, Kaylyn Risner 4 2 12, Allison Teglovic 5 3 13, Bayge Horner 0 3 3, Brailey Horner 2 0 4, Layne McKibben 1 0 2.

Crestline (4-12): Shots 9-32; 3-pt. shots 1 (Kennedi Snipes); Free throws 9-14; Rebounds 26; Turnovers 23. Scoring: Kennedi Snipes 1 0 3, Hannah Delong 4 3 11, Ivy Stewart 1 5 7, Daija Sewell 2 1 5, Brynn Cheney 1 0 2.

JV: Colonel Crawford 42-15.