NORTH ROBINSON — It’s a cliche, but it’s very true. Big players do step up in big games.
Colonel Crawford is loaded with big players.
The Eagles’ Carter Valentine scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the first half and Nolan McKibben dropped four of his five 3-point shots in the second half to add 15 in a 59-42 win over Upper Sandusky Thursday night at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
Crawford took control of the Northern 10 Athletic Conference with the win. The Eagles improved to 10-0 in the conference, 14-0 overall, while second-place Upper dropped to 8-2 in the league, 10-5 overall.
“It was a total team effort,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “We have two tough ones coming up with Carey and Mohawk so it’s far from over. Upper was playing for that league championship tonight and we were able to put some distance on them. Now you want to get to the point where you want to get greedy, you don’t want to share, you want to get that thing all by yourself.”
The Eagles had to play with a less-than-healthy Chase Walker, who injured his ankle Saturday night at Buckeye Central. Still, Walker made two of the biggest plays of the night.
Upper Sandusky never led in the game but did manage to cut the lead to 30-28 early in the second half on a Trent Beamer basket.
After McKibben knocked down a 3 to increase the Crawford lead to five, Walker made back-to-back steals and turned both into layups to increase the lead to nine. Upper never recovered.
“The big fella had no business playing tonight,” Sheldon said of his post. “Any other player would have been out two to three weeks. His ankle is a softball, and I give Peggy Wolfe, our trainer, and our physical therapist credit. He worked three times a day. He was in the swimming pool with me and he’s a tough kid.
“He said, ‘Coach, I’m going. That’s a great team over there and they have been playing very well. That’s a different team than we played the first time.’ Jeff (Winslow) does a great job and that’s a great program. (Chase) was bound and determined to go,” Sheldon added.
Upper Sandusky coach Jeff Winslow said that the Eagles are a tough matchup to defend.
“You gotta help and when their role players, who are very capable of doing what they did, are knocking down shots, it’s going to be tough to beat them,” Winslow said. “You gotta hope that you got it out of the right people’s hands and, they’re not used to taking as many shots, they’re not making every shot. It seemed like they moved the ball and found the open guy and that guy knocked down the shot.
“Coming in we knew if that happened, it was going to be a tough night and it was,” Winslow added.
Sheldon was also impressed with the way his team defended Rams stars Cade Adams and Gavin Carey. Adams finished with nine points and Carey added five.
“I thought defensively, our three posts were able to hold Carey to five and Beamer’s special,” Sheldon said. “He had 17 but we made him work, we were physical all night. And Adams is a great shooter, he’s the best shooter in the league. He hit some bombs, but we wanted Carter (Valentine) on him because he’s long.
“This was a big win for us; that’s the team that’s owned this league over the years.”
Upper Sandusky scored only two points in the fourth period partly because the Rams managed only six shots in the frame. Winslow said that the Eagles controlled the tempo and the basketball with the lead.
“They pulled it out,” Winslow said. “They did a really good job of handling the ball and limited our possessions, some of it but not all of it. They got that lead and that’s smart basketball. When you have a point guard like Studer, that’s what you do.”
“We had to change tonight,” Sheldon said. “We had a spread the floor because Chase’s ankle was so bad. So, we had to game plan totally different than what we were doing. And I think that epitomizes the guys in the locker room. They know what their roles are. Chase didn’t practice all week.”
The Eagles played at Upper Sandusky’s tempo most of the night.
“We wanted to get up and down,” Sheldon said. “We couldn’t let them sit in the half-court; they have two of the premier bigs in the league, both 6-foot-6, we couldn’t play with them in the half-court. That’s been Upper over the years.
“I thought we had some great transition baskets,” Sheldon added. “Nolan McKibben, he’s shot it really well all year for us. And he benefits off Valentine and Studer out there. And he gets passes and buries shots. He hit some big 3s tonight.”
Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game, 63-42. Adam Howard paced the Eagles with 19 points. Kaden Holman led Upper Sandusky with 13.
Box score
Upper Sandusky 12 14 14 2 — 42
Colonel Crawford 13 17 18 11 — 59
Upper Sandusky (10-5, 8-2 N10): Shots 17-39; 3-pt. shots 7 (Cade Adams 3, Jackson Smalley 2, Levi Lamb, Gavin Carey); Free throws 1-4; Rebounds 23; Turnovers 11. Scoring: Jackson Smalley 3 0 8, Levi Lamb 1 0 3, Cade Adams 3 0 9, Trenton Beamer 8 1 17, Gavin Carey 2 0 5.
Colonel Crawford (14-0, 10-0 N10): Shots 21-40; 3-pt shots 12 (Nolan McKibben 5, Carter Valentine 5, Mason Studer, Drayton Burkhart,); Free throws 5-5; Rebounds 18; Turnovers 2. Scoring: Mason Studer 3 2 9, Nolan McKibben 5 0 15, Carter Valentine 7 3 22, Mason McKibben 2 0 4, Drayton Burkhart 1 0 3, Chase Walker 3 0 6.
JV: Colonel Crawford 63-42.