GALION — Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon has been proud of his team’s ability to play defense over the years.
That ability to defend was on full display Tuesday night.
After Northmor guards Caleb Schnuerer and Logan Mariotti each hit 3-point shots, Crawford’s lead was 16-15 with 6:27 left in the second quarter.
Then, the Eagles’ defense kicked in.
Colonel Crawford outscored the Knights, 45-8, over the final 22 minutes of the game and walked away with an impressive 61-23 win.
How good were the Eagles? In the third period, Northmor (1-1) had just two free throws. In the fourth period, the Knights were held to a single 3-point basket by Schnuerer. That’s five points in the second half.
“Our guys just locked in,” Sheldon said. “That’s the key. As you can see, our offense is pretty powerful. We had two guys in doubles again. We do a good job of spreading and CV (Carter Valentine) and Mace (Mason Studer) score and create for our shooters. But it starts with the defensive effort. That’s been our staple the last 16 years. We’re gonna guard people. The guys understand, with our length and athleticism, playing defense without fouling people.”
The Knights made a run early to cut the lead to one, but Crawford exploded the rest of the way.
“That’s what good teams do,” Sheldon added. “They made a run at us and then we just put it on. We challenged them at halftime, we have to get off to a great start. I think they scored two points in the third quarter.”
Northmor coach Blade Tackett liked what his defense did, but felt his offense was not as good.
“We knew how good they were coming in,” Tackett said of the Eagles. “We had to play a near-perfect game and it was a bad night to have a bad night. We cut the lead to 16-15 and scored only eight points the rest of the night.
“We have scorers and we got good looks,” Tackett added. “We missed free throws, which has been a plague of ours, and we committed too many turnovers. We got looks around the basket and got open 3s that Mariotti and Bentley usually make.”
Despite a tough shooting night, the Eagles were able to pull away in the second half. Colonel Crawford (3-0) hit 12 of 33 shots in the first half and 21 of 56 for the game.
“Credit to our guys,” Sheldon said. “We had one day of preparation for this game. We played three games in seven days. And, what we did to (Graesin) Cass and (Grant) Bentley, holding them to one point, Bentley had 23 the other night.”
Conversely, the Knights made just six of 21 shots in the first half and seven of 42 shots for the game.
Crawford held a 16-9 lead after the first quarter and led 29-18 at the half. Valentine scored 14 of his game-high 23 points in the first half. Braxton Baker scored 10 of his 14 points in the first two periods.
“In the first half, we did exactly what we wanted to do, we made it tough on Studer and tough on Carter,” Tackett said. “We forced their spot shooters to knock down shots and they did.
“I think we did some good things defensively. We always say that the ball is energy,” Tackett added. “Energy-suckers are turnovers and missed layups. It takes the energy out of the ball. After we cut it to 16-15, we just couldn’t get that next bucket to go in and continue at least staying close.
The Eagles outscored the Knights, 19-2, in the third period to take a 48-20 lead. Then outscored Northmor, 13-3, in the final frame.
“(Northmor is a) very good in transition defense,” Sheldon said. “And we did a good job of getting back and not celebrating after makes, and even after misses, we did a great job of making them sit down in the half-court and that’s what we wanted to do.”
Crawford gets a small break from now after playing a tough opening stretch.
“We wanted to play three non-leagues, and now we open up Saturday in the league, and, every year, our goal is to win a league championship,” Sheldon said. “We’ll get back to work tomorrow. We got a little break here, two games in 11 days after going through a tough stretch.”
Box score
Colonel Crawford 16 13 19 13 — 61
Northmor 9 9 2 3 — 23
Colonel Crawford (3-0): Shots 21-56; 3-pt shots 7 (Carter Valentine 3, Braxton Baker 2, Nolan McKibben 2); Free throws 10-12; Rebounds 36; Turnovers 8. Scoring: Mason Studer 2 0 4, Ethan Holt 1 0 2, Braxton Baker 4 4 14, Nolan McKibben 2 1 7, Carter Valentine 9 2 23, Jacob Maddy 1 2 4, Carson Feichtner 3 1 7.
Northmor (1-1): Shots 7-32; 3-pt. shots 3 (Caleb Schnuerer 2, Logan Mariotti); Free throws 4-14; Rebounds 27; Turnovers 18. Scoring: Graesin Cass 0 1 1, Hunter Fulk 2 2 6, Logan Mariotti 1 0 3, Maxton Lower 3 1 7, Caleb Schnuerer 2 0 6.
JV: Colonel Crawford 38-30.