NORTH ROBINSON — It started off looking like Wynford would sweep the season series from its Northern 10 Athletic Conference rival as the Royals built a 16-6 lead to start the game here Saturday night.
But the Eagles used a stifling defense that limited the Royals to 5 points each in the two middle quarters in posting a 57-45 victory at a packed Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
Braxton Baker led a balanced scoring column with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Ten of his points came in the fourth quarter, including 6-of-6 from the foul line.
Derek Horsley added 15 points and Jacob Maddy 11 and 9 rebounds. Horsley tacked on 5 rebounds and 3 steals.
“Derek was really good over at Wynford last time. He has come into his own as a point guard at Colonel Crawford,” head coach David Sheldon said. “He’s a coach on the floor. He gets what I want.”
Eleven days earlier Wynford won in overtime 55-53.
“He’s had a great last stretch. He’s waited his turn for that position. He played really well again tonight as they did a great job on Braxton and Jacob.”
Wynford is now 11-7, 7-5 and Colonel Crawford improves to 14-5, 9-3.
The Royals were led by Grant McGuire (13), Caiden Allen (10) and Ashton Warren (9).
“The Allen kid is playing really good. Last night he goes for 23 and we held him to 10. I told Derek, ‘You need to keep him out of the paint.’ I thought defensively Derek was very good as well,” Sheldon said.
Mike Smith knew his team came in facing a challenge.
“We’ve been battling illness, but that’s no excuse. They beat us tonight. I didn’t have Sam last night and on Tuesday I think he was starting to get sick.”
The Royals are on a three-game slide with losses to Northmor and Mohawk earlier in the week.
“We got to figure out how to right the ship and right the ship quickly. At least now we got four days to prepare. I don’t really care for these back-to-back (weekend) league games. It’s too much on these kids and on the coaches to have to prepare,” Smith said.
“But Crawford, give them credit. I don’t think we were consistent with shots. We came out in the third quarter, and I think we had a couple good looks and could have cut the lead.”
The hosts went up 26-23 at halftime. All of Warren’s points came in the first half on 3 three-pointers.
“We got punched in the mouth right out of the gate,” Sheldon said. “Our motto in this program is one possession at a time. We got stops and then scores and then stop-score-stop. In the second half we extended that and were very, very good.”
The Eagles played a smarter game, making good backdoor passes (three times finding an open Holt in the second half) and showed great awareness. With 2:03 to go and his team up 9, Baker dove to the floor for a loose ball and called a timeout.
“I didn’t have to say much tonight,” Sheldon said. “A week and a half ago we know what happened. We had to watch them storm the floor and celebrate. Jan. 24, 2023. Our guys stepped up.
“We’ve got 5 seniors out there and 3 of them have played in a regional final before. I thought tonight was player ownership, player led. That’s what makes great teams over the years. There was some toughness, loose balls, 50-50 balls and they did a great job.”
Smith said fatigue may have been a factor for Wynford.
“Maybe we’re just tired, some tired legs. We got a lot of young guys. They don’t know how to always take care of themselves, and they’re not used to grinding at the end of the year.”
Wynford came back in the fourth scoring 17 behind a 9-point effort by McGuire.
“We cut it to 7 and still had 30-some seconds left. We did that against Upper and came back. But this is a little different beast here.
“They clamped down in the second half, knowing the Colonel Crawford-style of defense it’s tough. His bench players and role player maybe played a little better than I thought they would.
Smith said sophomore Wes Prenger could return from a wrist injury next week.
“He’s feeling good and trying to stay in shape. So hopefully next Friday (against Seneca East) we will back to full strength. That’s the seventh game we’ve played without him, and we’ve handled it pretty well,” he said.
“Hopefully we can get him back for a few games before the tournament starts and see if he can get his legs under him.”
Sheldon recognized the talent Wynford has on its squad.
“That’s a very good basketball team, one of the best I’ve played in a long time. They got skill all over the floor and it’s a great win,” Sheldon said.
“I’m proud of our guys’ effort. We had a tough week last week (losses to Wynford and Carey). Once again, we responded on a two-night weekend against two very good teams.”
Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game, 33-16. Lucas Foy had 14 for the Eagles. KJ Kotalik scored 6 points for the Royals.
Box score
Wynford 18 5 5 17 — 45
Colonel Crawford 10 16 10 21 — 57
Wynford (11-7, 7-5 N10): Shots 18-43; 3-pt. shots 6-19 (Ashton Warren 3, Austin Bindner, Caiden Allen, Grant McGuire); Free throws 3-5; Rebounds 19 (Sam McMillan 9); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Ashton Warren 3 0 9, Drew Johnson 2 0 4, Austin Bindner 1 0 3, Caiden Allen 3 3 10, Grant McGuire 6 0 13, Sam McMillan 3 0 6.
Colonel Crawford (14-5, 9-3 N10): Shots 18-35; 3-pt. shots 3-8 (Derek Horsley 2, Braxton Baker); Free throws 18-23; Rebounds 25 (Jacob Maddy 9); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Trevor Vogt 1 5 7, Ethan Holt 3 1 7, Derek Horsley 5 3 15, Braxton Baker 5 6 17, Jacob Maddy 4 3 11.
JV: Colonel Crawford 33-16.