SANDUSKY (Crawford County Now) — There has to be a first for everything.
For coach Zac Bauer, bringing a team to Midwest Girls Live at the Cedar Point Sports Center is a first in the five years that he has been at the helm at Colonel Crawford.
“It’s a great event,” Bauer said. “You have to give credit to the organizers. It’s a well-run event and the teams that are here have great talent.”
The event is sponsored by the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association,
The Eagles have won the Northern 10 Athletic Conference championship for the past two years.
Add into that returning All-N10 players Emmi Powers (first team), Robin Ehmann (first team and co-player of the year), Saylor Holt (honorable mention), and Bauer being named Co-Coach of the Year, and that makes for one dynamic team.
At the tournament, CC went 4-0, trouncing Howland 46-21 and Streetsboro 54-26 on Friday, and on Saturday, defeating Avon 34-26 and Norwayne 41-30.
“We came into this event with the mentality that we are going to see how resilient we are and what we are pressed up against when we see schools that are bigger than we are in size.” Bauer said.
In the game against Avon (9-15), the Eagles took the lead early on and held onto it going into halftime 19-13. The first tie came with 14:09 on the clock at 21 a piece in the second half when CC saw the lead slip, as Aliana Pagan made her free throws, making it 23-21.
It didn’t stay that way for long, however, as Reese Redman, an incoming sophomore, made a basket and a free throw with 6:18 left to go, and corrected the course for the Eagles, but Avon tied it at 26-26 with 4:15 left.
A bucket from Powers pulled the Eagles ahead 28-26.
“I feel like sometimes we rushed our shots and didn’t get what we wanted,” Powers said. “We got shots that we wanted on any possession, but Coach Bauer calmed us down and encouraged us to get great looks.”
Bauer called a timeout and CC went on a 6-0 run from there to win it.
“It’s a sign of a regulated team,” Bauer said. “When we can go to the huddle, clear our heads, come back, and gain momentum. And we don’t let those lulls drag out. It’s a sign of maturity for our team and I think it’s one of the biggest highlights of the weekend.”
Powers currently is one of four defenders that are returning. Holt, Lily Alberty, and Lila Plesac played both days as well. They forced Avon to turn the ball over eight times.
“I am just doing my part,” Powers said. “We have Lily, Saylor, and Lila. All with the ball and we have to rotate. It’s a team effort.”
In the game against Norwayne, the Eagles set the tone early as they raced out to a seven-point lead. The Bobcats came within three with 8:39 remaining in the first half, 10-7, but from there, it never got closer.
CC continued to bury them for the remainder of the game, making it 21-9 at the half. As hard as the Bobcats fought, the Eagles fought harder to maintain a double-digit lead.
With one minute remaining in the game, it was 41-26, and the final points from Norwayne came from a Courtney Cline free throw and a Cline 3-pointer to close it out 41-30.
“Our team responded really well, when we weren’t scoring, getting the higher quality shots,” Bauer said. “We challenged them to that, and they responded by holding the standard of ‘here are the quality shots that we expect to see in the next two possessions and let’s take those’. Not only did we get those shots, but we made them because they were quality shots. Our veteran team is very poised and responds to those standards and I thought we did a good job with that.”
It was the same story with Streetsboro (17-8), except Colonel Crawford caused the Rockets to turn the ball over 17 times in the game and buried them early, 20-7, within the first eight minutes of the game.
In the Howland (6-17) game, CC forced 10 turnovers. The key to being able to stop so many teams for the Eagles has been in the defense it has built over the last five years.
“Five years ago, when we started this journey, defense is what we hung our hats on,” Bauer said. “We are very fortunate to have the level of talent and the buy-in from our players to defend 94 feet. To be able to pick up play in full court allows more players to play. Defense is where our focus needs to be and everything else will take care of itself because shots won’t always fall, but we can always defend.”
One other aspect is going to be replacing the graduated Lexi Dure and Elizabeth Ehmann. Events like MGL build the team’s chemistry that is so important, which isn’t lost on Powers. Neither is the knowledge gained.
“When we played in the district final, against tough teams, and playing close games with these tough teams and talents here, it’s just a perk,” Powers said. “Definitely going to remember the bus rides and hanging out with my team. The team chemistry as well. We got Eastern Ohioan too this week and so it just builds the team together.”
The better question will be how will CC measure up to the other schools in the N10 including Upper Sandusky (9-15), Division VII state semifinal runner-up Seneca East (20-8), Wynford (19-6), and Carey (18-5), and its new competition of Tiffin Calvert (18-8), Old Fort (11-12), Hopewell-Loudon (9-15), New Riegel (1-22), Willard (20-5), and Lucas (9-14).
“The summertime and fall are really about seeing your capacity,” Bauer said. “With the goals that our team has, you want commitments to be challenged in the summertime. How can we respond to teams that are better than us? Are we going to hang our heads? That speeds our pace of game up during the regular season when we see quality teams in the N10, that we see in our sectional and district tournament, and we have high expectations and standards of ourselves, so we need to see what our capacity is in order to be able to get better.”
Bauer hopes the experience has planted the championship mentality seed early for his players.
“It’s the unseen hours,” Bauer said. “You kind of know how you feel when you play teams that are high level and you know what makes you uncomfortable as a player and only you know that. Work on your weaknesses and plant championship mentality seeds now so that when you play regular season games in December, January, and February, you are ready to make a play, and you have the confidence to be able to do that.”