CRESTLINE (Crawford County Now) — Seneca East traveled to Crestline Tuesday night and battled the Bulldogs without one of the best players in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference.
Even so, the Tigers are a pretty good basketball team.
The Tigers were forced to play without star Lucas Bordner, who is battling an ankle injury, and re-injured it over the weekend, according to Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst.
“Most of our plays are built around him, so, luckily, we knew ahead of time that we weren’t going to have him, so yesterday, we had to focus for what we were trying to do,” Langhurst said.
Despite not having Bordner, the Tigers got contributions from other players and came away with a 46-37 win.
With the win, Seneca East improved to 14-6 on the season while Crestline fell to 7-11.
Crestline coach Paul Webb said that, despite not having Bordner, the Tigers are still very formidable.
“They’re great,” Webb said. “They have great athletes, and they have a great coach. They’re a tough matchup for us. They’re really good at running zone; they went to that 2-3 against us and we struggled quite a bit against it. Early, for sure.
Guard Luke Mason led the way for Seneca East with 16 points, but the Tigers got some big contributions from Ayden Zack, with nine points and Taylor Young and Caden Miller with eight each.
“Offensively, we were spacing them out and let Mason go to work,” Langhurst said. “The biggest thing tonight was guys like Caden (Miller) and Ayden Zack; guys who don’t normally get the headlines or a lot of playing time. Their numbers were called tonight, and they stepped up in a big way.”
Seneca East led by as many as 13 three times in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs were able to come back.
Crestline got a three from sophomore Kody Lawhorn and a Lawhorn three-point play before a basket from Brett Cheney trimmed the Tigers’ lead to 35-27, entering the final frame.
The Bulldogs continued to chip away. Lawhorn added a basket, Kieran Barnett scored in the lane twice and a Quentin Kapp basket cut the Seneca East advantage to 37-35 with 3:25 left.
The Tigers, however, regained their poise and dropped seven of eight free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Webb said that Crestline has just finished a stretch of four games in seven days.
“Our guys, this is game four in a week, and I think they are just a little worn out,” Webb said. “We were at the basket, and I told them after the game, I said ‘How many guys missed point blank shots? You think you missed five of them?’ They said yes, and we lost by nine.”
Lawhorn led all scorers with 18 points, but the rest of the Crestline team scored 19.
Langhurst felt that his defense was the difference in the game.
“We’re active, did a good job communicating, located shooters,” Langhurst said. “When their backs are against the wall, it seems like they grind a little harder. I thought our communication was good and our rebounding was good, even though we are losing our starting center in Lucas. I thought we kinda bonded together a little and rebounded the ball well.”
Webb felt that his team’s inability to put the ball in the basket was the difference.
“It is what it is,” Webb said. “Sometimes you make shots and sometimes you don’t. I thought we played hard, and I thought we competed and that’s all I really care about.”
Box scores
Seneca East 9 14 12 11 — 46
Crestline 10 3 14 10 — 37
Seneca East (14-6): Shots 16-43; 3-pt. shots 4 (Ayden Zack 3, Luke Mason); Free throws 10-12; Rebounds 22; Turnovers 14. Scoring: Taylor Young 3 2 8, Bryler Beamer 1 1 3, Luke Mason 4 7 16, Ayden Zack 3 0 9, Caden Miller 4 0 8, Landyn Hicks 1 0 2.
Crestline (7-11): Shots 14-40; 3-pt. shots 3 (Kody Lawhorn 2, Carter Giesige); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 21; Turnovers 18. Scoring: Kody Lawhorn 6 4 18, Carter Giesige 1 0 3, Kieran Barnett 2 0 4, Quentin Kapp 2 0 4, Brett Chaney 3 2 8.
JV: Crestline 44-35.