NORTH ROBINSON — One sign of a solid basketball program is its being able to lose a league player of the year and not miss a beat.
Departed Trevor Vogt was just that for Colonel Crawford in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference last year.
Still, the Eagles are challenging for yet another N10 championship. They took a step in that direction with a convincing win over Bucyrus Saturday night.
Colonel Crawford utilized a couple of familiar tools — offensive rebounding and lockdown defense — to roll past the visiting Redmen, 73-33, at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
The Eagles grabbed 16 offensive rebounds — Bucyrus had two — and the defense held Redmen leading scorer Georgie Floyd to no points.
“That’s our physicality — the weight room,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. He credited football coach Jake Bruner and his staff for the lifting regimen.
“Monday, first thing when we get back to practice, we’re going to be in the weight room. We lift all year.”
Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis knew what to expect but was unable to stop it.
“They’re more experienced,” Hargis said of the Eagles. “They did a good job taking away our most consistent weapon right now, Georgie Floyd. He just started (this year) scoring the ball.”
Not only did Floyd not score, but he was only able to take a handful of shots.
“We wanted to take away Georgie. He’s had a great start, and he does score,” Sheldon said. “The other night (against Buckeye Central), Jack Phillips doesn’t score, and he was averaging 19. We do so much preparing every night no matter who we’re playing.”
“We warned (Georgie),” Hargis said of the defense against him. “But until you step into the fire and get double-teamed — we told him you’re going to get the Bayless treatment. They doubled every ball screen and took us out of some of our stuff.”
Colonel Crawford (4-1, 3-0 N10) left little doubt as to the outcome after just one quarter, taking a 16-4 by period’s end. The DeGray combo of Payne and John had six points each in the frame.
The lead ballooned to 38-14 at halftime, by which time the Eagles had taken 32 shots — hitting half of them — and the Redmen had attempted just 14, also hitting half.
For the game, Bucyrus (0-5, 0-3) hit an identical percentage of shots. Colonel Crawford just made it up in volume, thanks to the disparity on the offensive glass and turnovers — 20-5.
“Offensive rebounds give you extra possessions,” Sheldon said. “We tell our bigs, ‘Anytime you see a shot, that’s a pass. Go get it off the glass.’”
“It was really just giving up offensive rebounds (that was the difference),” Hargis said. “Our defense was not horrible. We didn’t give up as much penetration as I thought we would.”
One Bucyrus player who solved the Eagles defense to a degree was Demaris Munn-Page, who led the Redmen with 15 points and five of his team’s 15 rebounds.
“I want to give Bucyrus credit. They played hard all the way to the buzzer,” Sheldon said. “I grabbed Munn-Page. He played his tail off. Credit Coach Hargis for how hard they played for the entire game and didn’t quit. That was impressive to me.”
The only other Bucyrus player in double figures was Dylan Coppler with 11. Only four Bucyrus players scored.
Payne DeGray led Colonel Crawford with 20 points and six rebounds. John DeGray finished with 16 points, while Logan Goddard and Brayden Holt added 11 each.
“We handled the kickouts. We knew they were going to get shots,” Hargis said. “We were going to give them the kickouts.”
That strategy worked for what it was, as the Eagles didn’t shoot well from 3-point range. But they were virtually unstoppable inside.
“I think this is a good sign for this basketball team,” Sheldon said. “The other night (against Buckeye Central), we hit 15 threes. Tonight, we were six of 25. Because of our inside presence, we can throw it in to the DeGray boys and Dom Dean and then get it on the glass.”
“The one thing I am proud of is we went into halftime down (24). It’s a new game 0-0 (in the third quarter),” Hargis said. “I thought they played well as a young group under adversity, and they played to the very end. We’re hanging our hat on that as a little bit of momentum going into the Wynford game next Friday.”
“We have to continue to be unselfish,” Sheldon said. “We’ve seen double teams. We create for shooters. That’s a big part of our depth and the way these guys enjoy each other on and off the court.”
Colonel Crawford also won the junior varsity game, 59-19. Jacob Cochran had 12 points for the Eagles and Walker Cramer added 10. Quin Ross led Bucyrus with six.
Box score
Bucyrus 4 10 16 3 — 33
Colonel Crawford 16 22 23 12 — 73
Stats
Bucyrus (0-5, 0-3 N10): Shots 15-29; 3-pt. shots 2-7 (Lincoln Blizzard, Dylan Coppler); Free throws 1-6; Rebounds 15 (Demaris Munn-Page 5); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Demarius Munn-Page 7 1 15, Lincoln Blizzard 1 0 3, Dylan Coppler 5 0 11, Carson Witten 2 0 4.
Colonel Crawford (4-1, 3-0 N10): Shots 30-58; 3-pt. shots 6-25 (Logan Goddard 3, Peyton Baker, Brady Hill, Brayden Holt); Free throws 7-11; Rebounds 32 (Payne DeGray 6); Turnovers 5. Scoring: Peyton Baker 1 0 3, Logan Goddard 4 0 11, Brady Hill 1 0 3, John DeGray 8 0 16, Brayden Holt 4 2 11, Dom Dean 4 1 9, Payne DeGray 8 4 20.
JV: Colonel Crawford 59-19.