CRESTLINE — Sophomore Carter Giesige is just 5-foot-5 and his teammates affectionately call him “Goose.” But with the game on the line, the Bulldogs’ guard made the biggest plays.
Crestline and Ridgedale entered the fourth quarter tied at 31-31, and neither team could get the lead for nearly the first two minutes of the period.
Then Giesige came through. He drilled a 3-point shot with 6:15 left in the game to give the Bulldogs the lead, before hitting another huge 3 with 5:22 left to give Crestline a 37-31 lead.
From that point, the Rockets simply weren’t able to come all the way back.
Ridgedale got a key 3 from Logan Resnick to cut the lead to 37-36 with 2:04 left before the Bulldogs responded with a driving layup on the baseline from freshman Kieran Barnett and two big free throws from Trevor Shade to come away with a 41-38 win.
Crestline came off a six-day stretch where it played four games. But the stretch was highly successful as the Bulldogs won their last three games to improve to 5-7 on the season. The Rockets fell to 2-12.
But Giesige made the biggest plays at a time when his team needed it the most.
“(Giesige) made two big 3s for us that were huge,” Crestline coach Tyler Sanders said. “He had pretty good on-ball defense, I just got on him a little bit for the turnovers, but he’s trying to look over the tall arms of Ridgedale but he’s going to get better at that, but the boys are starting to play well and dudes are starting to fill in and play their roles. It’s really fun to see.”
Ridgedale coach Mike Mathey said that the Bulldogs just made more plays in the final frame than his team.
“I thought our kids battled hard, they battled all the way,” Mathey said. “If a few plays go our way that’s a different ball game. But that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes.”
The game was nip and tuck virtually the entire night. Crestline led 15-10 after the first quarter but the Rockets came back in the second period, outscoring the Bulldogs, 12-6, to take a 21-20 lead at the half.
Neither team took care of the basketball well, as Crestline had 19 turnovers to 25 for Ridgedale, but the Bulldogs were able to take care of the basketball better down the stretch.
Crestline held a 39-38 lead with 39 seconds left in the game when Ridgedale’s Landon Murphy scored on a layup.
But twice the Rockets had a chance to get the lead, the first coming with 8.9 seconds left and the second with less than one second left but committed back-to-back turnovers.
“We made plays in the fourth quarter,” Sanders said. “We lost Logan (Huber), he fouled out, but guys still stepped up and made plays. It was a fun feeling tonight.”
“Our defense was really active tonight,” Mathey said. “I think we get frustrated when we held them to 41. We have to hold teams into that 40 range and we were right there tonight.
“We had our opportunities tonight. We just couldn’t take advantage of it.”
Isaiah Perry paced the Bulldogs with 10 points, while Giesige, Barnett and Shade each added eight points. Gage Gleespen and Braydon Townsend each scored 12 points to pace the Rockets.
“Isaiah is going to have nights when he doesn’t score a lot; well, he kinda got banged up in the first quarter, but he still gutted it out for us,” Sanders said. “Everyone just stepped in and did what they had to do.”
Sanders felt that his team has played much better basketball in the last four games.
“We’ve been playing a lot better basketball, you can go back to the Galion game, a game we didn’t win, but we played a lot better,” Sanders said.
“The kids are finally deciding that they are tired of losing and they’re getting themselves in gear,” he added. “I just told the boys ‘When you start winning and you play bad, then you’re starting to turn the corner and become a good basketball team.’ So, we’re getting there.”
Ridgedale won the junior varsity game, 42-24.
Box score
Ridgedale 10 12 9 7 — 38
Crestline 15 6 10 10 — 41
Ridgedale (2-12): Shots 15-38; 3-pt. shots 1 (Logan Rasnick); Free throws 7-12; Rebounds 21; Turnovers 25. Scoring: Landon Murphy 0 1 1, Gavin Parish 3 2 8, Gage Gleespen 6 0 12, Logan Rasnick 1 0 3, Braydon Townsend 5 2 12, Evan Ricketts 0 2 2.
Crestline: (5-7): Shots 16-33; 3-pt. shots 4 (Trevor Shade 2, Carter Giesige 2); Free throws 5-12; Rebounds 20; Turnovers 19. Scoring: Logan Huber 2 1 5, Carter Jones 1 0 2, Carter Giesige 3 0 8, Kieran Barnett 3 2 8, Trevor Shade 2 2 8, Isaiah Perry 5 0 10.
JV: Ridgedale 42-24.