NORTH ROBINSON — The game was as good as advertised. In fact, Mohawk and Colonel Crawford were so evenly matched that it took an extra four minutes inside Mac Morrison Gymnasium as snow began falling outside before it was decided.
The Eagles trailed for much of the game but tied it at 42-42 before topping the Warriors in overtime 53-50 Friday night in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference boys basketball bonanza.
Mohawk (7-1, 5-1) led 12-11, 21-19 and 34-30 after the quarter breaks, but when it was clutch time Colonel Crawford came up big.
“Mohawk’s a great team and we knew that going in. Nothing was won tonight, but we held serve tonight,” Eagles head coach David Sheldon said.
“We just didn’t panic. We work on situations — and I’ve said this to you guys over the 19 years — in huddles and that. We turned up the full-court press and got a couple of big steals.”
Lucas Foy hit a three-pointer in the fourth quarter that kept the Eagles in the game at 40-35 when it looked like Mohawk would pull away. The Warriors had built a 10-point lead as Colonel Crawford went scoreless for the first 4 minutes.
Kaleb Bish and Hunter Haynes hit shots and Connor Flood put back a miss to make it 40-30.
“Brayden Holt was dynamite in the second half,” Sheldon said. “He’s really good. He’s a tough kid and he’s a gym rat. He put us on his shoulders.”
Holt led his team with 23 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists. Payne DeGray chipped in 14 points and 8 rebounds.
But other Colonel Crawford (10-1, 7-0) players fulfilled their roles in typical fashion as Parker Weithman added a pair of key rebounds down the stretch. John DeGray snared 9 boards to go along with his 8 points and Kaden Bruner added 5 rebounds.
“Boomer Cleveland was unbelievable. First of all, it was the drive and score and then we try to go under, and he buries (three) 3s. I thought he was phenomenal. It was two really good teams and that’s what high school basketball is all about,” Sheldon said.
“That was better than watching Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit break down the Ohio State game.”
Cleveland, one of 10 seniors on the Mohawk roster, had 21 points and 7 rebounds.
“We know they’re a well-coached team. We haven’t been in that situation before this season. We just wrote a master class in how to not finish out a game,” Mohawk head coach Paul Dunn said.
Free throw shooting (5-of-11) didn’t help Mohawk’s chances of keeping the lead. Crawford, meanwhile, hit on 16-of-22 at the charity stripe.
“You can’t do that against good teams in their place. In the second half we lost their best guard too many times and we didn’t fight for boards good enough,” he said. “But credit to them. They played harder than us when it mattered.”
Both teams played hard in the fourth quarter and overtime, exchanging momentum swings.
Flood, a 6-foot-7 post, gave Mohawk a 42-35 lead with 1:37 in regulation. But the heady Holt hit a three and then stole a Warriors pass and fed Payne DeGray to cut the margin to 42-40 with 1:36 on the clock.
Flood had 8 points, 5 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
“Payne did a good job of getting him on his shoulder some, because when he goes straight up you ain’t getting over him,” Sheldon said. “We forced some over him and he does such a good job at blocking shots. You gotta be smart in when and how you attack him. That’s two of the best post players in the league going at it tonight.”
Holt’s ability to get steals and play sound defense were keys for the Eagles.
“It’s his IQ, his knowledge of the game and his instincts. You can’t teach that. He’s been around the game his whole life and you can’t teach that. He made some huge steals and some huge buckets in the second half,” Sheldon said.
Haynes and Bish added 6 points each and Kahne Hayman 5 for Mohawk, who fell behind 46-42 in the extra session.
“We weren’t able to get the tip. They were able to go up and kill some clock. I didn’t think we were getting as many good looks as we did earlier,” Dunn said. “They did a good job of shutting down our driving lanes late and that made it hard on us.”
Switching from man-to-man to zone and then back again was a strategy Dunn employed.
“We have been a predominant man-to-man team the past couple of years and been pretty good at it. They made that run on us and cut it to 4 and I told my assistants we weren’t going to go swinging playing zone. I wanted to make it tough on them and we don’t rebound as well out of the zone as we do man-to-man.”
Mohawk hosts Lucas and Crawford goes to Galion Saturday as both teams have nonleague games.
Weithman started on junior varsity and earned a spot on the varsity, Sheldon said.
“He’s a gamer. His shooting and the way he can dribble the ball. We saw that in football. I go back to Logan Goddard (a three) in the first half,” Sheldon said.
“It’s Lucas Foy. Kaden Bruner was huge rebounding the basketball and defensively. It’s multiple guys.
“This group understands, hey when my name is called, I’ve got to play to my abilities and my role. Everybody talks about the big three — DeGray, DeGray and Holt — but those guys are just as important knowing their roles for our team.”
Next Saturday Upper Sandusky visits the Eagles Nest.
“That’s a very good team coming here. They’re on fire and that’s this league. It’s tough every night.”
The Rams beat Carey, 61-50, to move to 9-2 overall and 5-2 in the N10.
Box score
Mohawk 12 9 13 8 8 — 50
Colonel Crawford 11 8 11 12 11— 53
Mohawk (7-1, 5-1 N10): Shots 20-50; 3-pt. shots 5-19 (Boomer Cleveland 3, Hunter Haynes 2); Free throws 5-11; Rebounds 20 (Boomer Cleveland 7); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Kahne Hayman 2 1 5, Ben Bogner 1 0 2, Kaleb Bish 3 0 6, Boomer Cleveland 8 2 21, Hunter Haynes 2 0 6, Garrett Rinehart 1 0 2, Connor Flood 3 2 8.
Colonel Crawford (10-1, 7-0 N10): Shots 16-45; 3-pt. shots 5-15 (Brayden Holt 3, Lucas Foy, Logan Goddard); Free throws 16-22; Rebounds 27 (Hohn DeGray 9, Payne DeGray 8); Turnovers 6. Scoring: Logan Goddard 1 0 3, Parker Weithman 0 1 1, John DeGray 4 0 8, Lucas Foy 1 1 4, Brayden Holt 6 8 23, Payne DeGray 4 6 14.
JV: Colonel Crawford 36-27.