NORTH ROBINSON — The Colonel Crawford defense has been solid all year. Coach David Sheldon has been waiting for the offense to catch up.
It caught up Friday night.
The Eagles used their trademark defense to fuel an explosive offense as they cruised to a 58-35 win over Bucyrus in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
“I thought our defense led to offense for us,” Sheldon said. “It got us out to run. We didn’t want them to walk it up the floor. Last week in their win against Seneca East, they did a good job of controlling the tempo.”
Bucyrus (1-7, 1-4 N10) hung around for a good portion of the first quarter, leading 8-3 on a basket by Jaylen Zehner with 3:33 and still had the lead at 8-7 under the two-minute mark, before the Eagles’ defense started to take its toll.
“In the last two minutes of the first quarter, it was 8-7, we were up,” Redmen coach Justin Mattix said. “And then, we started turning the ball over. They started doing that run-and-jump across half court, throwing new looks at us.”
Four turnovers and four fouls by Bucyrus ignited an 8-0 run to the end of the quarter and a 15-8 Colonel Crawford lead. That stretch was a microcosm of the game.
The Eagles used a 15-10 advantage in the second quarter to build a 30-18 halftime lead. Jordan Fenner led the way for Colonel Crawford (5-3, 3-3) with 13 of his 15 points in the first two periods.
Both coaches agreed that Fenner was the difference maker.
“In this day and age, it’s all 3s and layups,” Sheldon said. “His mid-range game reminds me of the boys back in the day — (Buckeye Central’s) Boomer Kimmel, (Wynford’s) Mike McGuire, (Colonel Crawford’s) Todd Martin — those mid-range guys. Jordan’s mid-range jumper is very good. He can pull up on a dime and he’s pretty athletic getting up on it too.”
“That kid, to his credit, has developed a pull-up jumper that is unstoppable,” Mattix said. “We put on the scouting report that if he gets to that elbow jumper, it’s going in. I only saw him miss one elbow jumper in all the film I watched. He’ just a really good player who can create for himself. He knows when to create and when to dish off.”
In the second half, he mostly facilitated his teammates. Gavin Feichtner and Zye Shipman each scored eight points in the second half to join Fenner in double figures. The Eagles rolled up 20 points in a big third quarter for a 50-24 bulge, leaving no doubt as to the outcome.
The defense put a clamp on the Redmen’s No.1 scoring threat, Harley Robinson-Koge, limiting him to six points.
“Our attention was on Harley (defensively),” Sheldon said. “He’s a special player, he’s a special athlete. It’s a credit to Reis Walker, who had him in the half-court. And other guys did a good job of helping when he put it on the floor, because he’s a very good player. So, to hold him to six is a very good effort.”
Kyle Hamm benefitted from the attention paid Robinson-Koge by leading the Redmen with 16 points and nine rebounds. Hamm hit all eight of his free throws.
“Kyle did a really good job,” Mattix said. “He scored 16, almost half our points. He did a really good job of finishing strong. Going into this game, he was under 50 percent from the free throw line and this game, he doesn’t miss one. He did a really good job of focusing in today. He was the biggest kid on the floor and he took advantage of that.”
Feichtner finished with 16 points to go with Fenner’s 15 to lead the Eagles. Shipman ended with 13. Feichtner and Chase Walker grabbed five rebounds each. Colonel Crawford connected on a blistering 26 of 54 shots.
“I think the big thing for us tonight is that we put four quarters together,” Sheldon said. “The last two games, we struggled in one quarter offensively. Tonight, we go 15, 15, 20 and we sub the bench with six (minutes) to go. I was proud of us putting the whole game together.”
“We had a bunch of live-ball turnovers. Live-ball turnovers kill you,” Mattix said. “We don’t have many where we just throw it out of bounds or travel, where it’s a dead ball. We make a backwards pass for a wide-open layup that is uncontested. That even happened in the second half. That’s where (Chase) Walker got his two dunks.”
“This is a team that will keep improving,” Sheldon said of his Eagles. “We ‘ve just got to keep getting better. This is a team that will keep growing. This is a team that has a chance to get better from the beginning to the end of the year more than any team I’ve ever had.”
“Our problem is, we just don’t get consistency. We don’t know what we’re getting from guys,” Mattix said. “We have three guys averaging in double digits and we only have on that gets double digit today.
“You can’t rely on emotions to get you going,” he continued. “That’s where you get inconsistent. You might do good for a little bit, but when those emotions leave, it’s really hard to overcome that, get consistent and get back in the rhythm.”
Colonel Crawford held on for a 45-37 victory in the junior varsity game as well. The Eagles held a 40-22 lead before Bucyrus cut it to five late in the fourth quarter.
Mason McKibben had a game-high 16 points to lead Colonel Crawford and Brock Ritzhaupt added 11.
Gabe Higginbotham topped the Redmen with nine, while Mike Wise and Justin Webster finished with seven each.
Box score
Bucyrus 8 10 6 11 — 35
Colonel Crawford 11 9 5 24 — 58
Stats
Bucyrus (1-7, 1-4 N10): Shots 13-38; 3-pt. shots 0-7; Free throws 9-10; Rebounds 24 (Kyle Hamm 9); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Jaylen Zehner 3 0 6, Kenton Lutz 2 0 4, Nic Middleton 1 1 3, Harley Robinson-Koge 3 0 6, Kyle Hamm 4 8 16.
Colonel Crawford (5-3, 3-3 N10): Shots 27-54; 3-pt shots 1-7 (Gavin Feichtner); Free throws 3-5; Rebounds 29 (Gavin Feichtner 5, Chase Walker 5); Turnovers 8. Scoring: Reis Walker 4 0 8, Jordan Fenner 7 1 15, Zye Shipman 6 1 13, Mason Studer 1 0 2, Gavin Feichtner 7 1 16, Chase Walker 2 0 4.
JV: Colonel Crawford 45-37.