NORTH ROBINSON — Colonel Crawford was the No. 1 team in the Division III district tournament and the No. 2 team in the state in the Associated Press poll.

Reasons for both were on display at Mac Morrison Gymnasium Friday night.

The Eagles hosted the sectional final, welcoming the Van Buren Black Knights, 44-43 winners over Wynford in the sectional semifinal.

The Knights likely didn’t feel so welcome.

Colonel Crawford jumped out to a 21-9 first-quarter lead, then used a 31-point second quarter to expand the advantage to 32, before cruising to a 78-44 victory to win a 10th consecutive sectional championship.

“I’ve seen them on film,” Van Buren coach Tyler Niekamp said of the Eagles. “I knew they were really good. They’re well-coached, they do things right. And then, seeing them in person is a whole other animal.”

Chase Walker led the Colonel Crawford chare early on. The senior post scored eight of his 17 points in the opening period even with the Knights playing a 2-3 zone.

“Chase was really good,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “If you look at the first half, he put up big numbers — 17 in the first half because he didn’t play in the second half. He’s a force to be reckoned with.”

Niekamp had no objection to that assessment.

“He’s about as good as we’ve seen all year,” Niekamp said of Walker. “Not only is he really talented and athletic, he plays really hard all the time. You can tell he’s one of the leaders on the team. I was really impressed with him.”

Scarier yet for opponents, Walker has plenty of help. Carter Valentine also had 17 points in the first half — including three 3-point shots — and Nolan McKibben had 12 points on four 3s.

Sheldon was able to pull all his starters early in the third quarter and the bench played the majority of the second half.

“It was a good one,” Sheldon said. “The neat thing is we got everybody in. Our starters only played a minute of the third quarter. So, it was great to get everybody tournament experience. All these guys are helping to prepare each day as you move on.”

Colonel Crawford (23-0) had 13 players dressed and 12 of them scored. All got significant court time.

On the other side, a slow start on offense doomed Van Buren (3-21).

“That was one of the things we were focusing on — getting off to a good start,” Niekamp said. “Part of that is being able to knock down some shots, trying to relieve some of that pressure and we weren’t able to do that. And then we had a harder and harder time attacking their pressure and that made I more effective.”

“Our defense set the tone,” Sheldon said. “It created our offense and that’s what we wanted to do. We knew they were going to sit in a 2-3 zone, and we wanted to create offense off our defense.”

Andrew Schroeder led the Knights with 13 points and Landon Miller added seven. Van Buren had 10 players score in all. Jackson Gregory grabbed six rebounds.

“These kids have been great for me, for us, all year,” Niekamp said. “Even after tough weekends, they came back every week and they worked their tails off. Even though our record didn’t really show it, I thought we made a lot of good strides this year.”

Sheldon was cautionary about moving on to the district tournament.

“It’s a good district tournament,” Sheldon said. “Willard is an outstanding team. They won their conference and they’re very talented. So, we’ll go back to work and prepare to play in the district semifinal next Thursday.”

Colonel Crawford will meet Willard at Shelby at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Box score

Van Buren                    9      11      14     10 — 44

Colonel Crawford   21     31      16     10 — 78

Van Buren (3-21): Shots 16-38; 3-pt shots 6-16 (Andrew Schroeder 2, Landon Miller, Owen Coffey, Parker Beilharz, Dozier Pierce); Free throws 6-15; Rebounds 24; Turnovers 16. Scoring: Peter Harrington 1 0 2, Reece Reichley 1 1 3, Clarence Durliat 1 0 2, Landon Miller 2 2 7, Owen Coffey 1 0 3, Andrew Schroeder 5 1 13, Parker Beilharz 2 0 5, Trey Rampe 1 2 4, Dozier Pierce 1 0 3, Jackson Gregory 1 0 2.

Colonel Crawford (23-0): Shots 28-49; 3-pt. shots 10-22 (Nolen McKibben 4, Carter Valentine 3, Mason Studer, Braxton Baker, Drayton Burkhart); Free throws 12-16; Rebounds 27 (Chase Walker 6); Turnovers 7. Scoring: Mason Studer 3 0 7, Derek Horsley 0 4 4, Brock Ritzhaupt 1 0 2, Nolan McKibben 4 0 12, Carter Valentine 5 6 19, Braxton Baker 1 0 3, Mason McKibben 1 0 2, Jacob Maddy 1 0 2, Drayton Burkhart 1 0 3, Ethan Smith 2 1 5, Chase Walker 8 1 17, Carson Feichtner 1 0 2.