NORTH ROBINSON — It was almost over before it started.
Colonel Crawford used a 29-point blitz in the first quarter to build a 15-point lead, then went to a lockdown defense for the final three quarters to overwhelm Bucyrus, 68-22, in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
“I think we played right into their hands tonight,” Bucyrus coach Barry Egan said. “We shot it way too quick, didn’t run much offense. I think we took a major step back tonight.”
The Eagles hit 12 of 18 shots in the opening period, forcing six Redmen turnovers.
“We want to play up-and-down,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “You can see the speed and I think we wore them down a little bit. We were running even on a make. When you’re putting pressure on with your offense, it wears on them.”
Bucyrus (1-2, 0-2 N10) had one ray of offensive sunshine over the last half of the first quarter. The Redmen scored on six of seven possessions, hitting six straight shots to account for 12 of their 14 first-period points.
From there, the sun got blotted out from the Bucyrus sky. The Redmen made only three more field goals the rest of the night, going one for nine from the field in each of the final three quarters.
“I thought we did a great job of making shots tough,” Sheldon said. “We were able to give them different pressure looks and get some easy baskets as well.”
Fueling the offense were the one-two punch of Mason Studer and Carter Valentine. Studer scored 14 of his 17 points in the first quarter and Valentine added 12 of his game-high 20 in the frame.
“They feed off turnovers and when they get them, everybody plays at that speed,” Egan said. “Mason makes everything run with them and Carter’s a tough matchup for everybody. Both are exceptional players. They get everybody involved on their team.”
With a 49-16 halftime lead, it didn’t take long for the Eagles to get the score to running clock territory — 35-point lead — and Colonel Crawford only scored 19 points in the second half.
“We had a great week of practice. We went harder this week than we have all year,” Sheldon said. “We won last week (at Buckeye Central) but we weren’t happy with our performance. So, we had a tough week of practice and I think it carried over to Saturday.”
Braxton Baker joined Studer and Valentine in double figures with 12 points and Jacob Maddy came off the bench to add nine points and eight rebounds. Ethan Smith grabbed 10 boards.
“Once again, we had great balance — three guys in doubles and Maddy with nine,” Sheldon said. “We talk about the ball not sticking and moving either off the bounce or off the pass and getting great shots instead of good shots. That’s an area we’ve got to continue to work on.”
Grady Jackson led Bucyrus with six points, all in the first quarter, and Mike Wise had seven rebounds.
“It’s just exceptionally disappointing,” Egan said. “But I think our seniors will get these guys to regroup, refocus and we’ll come back next week and definitely hope to be better.”
“Defensively, we were phenomenal,” Sheldon said. “We had a long film session thanks to Coach (Nate) Hill this week and it was brutal with our defensive effort. Tonight, I thought we turned it up a notch.”
Colonel Crawford also won the junior varsity game, 48-29. Trevor Vogt had 19 points to lead the Eagles and Ryan McMichael added 10. Blayne Stewart-Barto had 10 for Bucyrus.
Box score
Bucyrus 14 2 2 4 — 22
Colonel Crawford 29 20 12 7 — 68
Bucyrus (1-2, 0-2 N10): Shots 9-37; 3-pt. shots 1-14 (Kolton Middleton); Free throws 3-4; Rebounds 17 (Mike Wise 17); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Joe Rager 2 0 4, Mike Wise 1 2 4, Grady Jackson 3 0 6, Jake Hamm 1 0 2, Kolton Middleton 1 0 3, Malachi Bayless 0 1 1, Dylan Lanker 1 0 2.
Colonel Crawford (5-0, 2-0 N10): Shots 28-65; 3-pt. shots 5-23 (Mason Studer 2, Braxton Baker 2, Nolen McKibben); Free throws 7-11; Rebounds 48 (Ethan Smith 10); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Mason Studer 7 1 17, Braxton Baker 4 2 12, Nolan McKibben 2 0 5, Carter Valentine 9 2 20, Jacob Maddy 4 1 9, Ethan Smith 2 0 4, Carson Feichtner 0 1 1.
JV: Colonel Crawford 48-29.