NORTH ROBINSON — With over 30 years of combined as head coaches and a mere 40 miles separating their respective schools, the Sheldon brothers — David and Chris — had never faced each other in the regular season.
Until Saturday night.
Due to cancelations related to the coronavirus, both Chris Sheldon’s Western Reserve Roughriders and David Sheldon’s Colonel Crawford Eagles had an opening on the schedule.
The game was worthy of the wait.
Colonel Crawford overcame early shooting woes and an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Western Reserve, 43-39, at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
“The only reason this game happened was COVID,” David Sheldon said. “Only in 2020 would this game happen. I lost the Kenton game and (Chris) lost a game. We just wanted to give our kids a chance to compete.”
The fans, though limited mostly to family of players, were the beneficiaries. But the pregame tension anticipating the sibling matchup was mostly in the stands, not on the benches.
“Once the ball goes up in the air, quite honestly, you totally forget,” Chris Sheldon said. “When the ball goes up, you’re competing. It doesn’t matter who they are, whether it’s a brother, whether it’s a friend, whether it’s somebody you don’t like. It’s about competing against the other team.”
Compete they did. Western Reserve took control early, hitting five of 16 shots in the first period to take a 12-6 lead after one. Colonel Crawford struggled from the field, connecting on just two of 11 attempts.
Shooting actually got worse in the second quarter for the Eagles, who did not register a field goal on four shots. The Roughriders hit five of 14 shots to build a 23-12 advantage at intermission.
Two early fouls sent Colonel Crawford point guard Mason Studer to the bench, hampering the offense.
“It doesn’t help when your leader, your point guard, picks up two fouls early,” David Sheldon said. “We got out of synch there with the two charge calls, which were great calls.”
The key to the Eagles being as close as they were was hitting eight of their nine free throws, a theme for the night.
Western Reserve (1-1) built its biggest lead of the game — 29-14 — on a 3-point shot by John Skrada at 5:22 of the third quarter. From there, Colonel Crawford (2-0) scored nine of the final 11 points of the period on a 3, and two free throws, by Carter Valentine, and a 3 by Studer, to cut the deficit to 31-23.
“We knew going into this that it was going to be a district finals type game,” Chris Sheldon said. “We got district type officials on the game. They’re going to let you beat on each other. These games tend to be much lower scoring.”
The stage was set for the decisive fourth quarter.
Colonel Crawford whittled away at the Roughrider lead until Drayton Burkhart hit a 3 with 53 seconds left to give the Eagles a 41-39 lead — their first since the first quarter and only their second of the game.
After struggling from the field for three quarters, Colonel Crawford hit four 3s in the final eight minutes to come all the way back.
“I’m just proud of our kids,” David Sheldon said. “We’re down 14-15 at one time. We just got stops. We talk about stop, score, stop a lot. We got stops in the second half and we finally put the ball in the basket.”
Western Reserve missed their final four shots, including a layup that would have tied it, before Chase Walker sealed it for the Eagles with a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds left in the game.
“You have an opportunity with a double-digit lead — that’s not supposed to happen,” Chris Sheldon said of the loss. “Their kids didn’t quit, and our kids started to question their ability to seal the deal.”
Skrada and Luke Rowlinson each scored 12 points to lead Western Reserve and Rowlinson grabbed six rebounds. Only five Roughriders scored.
Studer led all scorers with 17 for Colonel Crawford and Walker added 10 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Only five Eagles scored as well. CC hit 15 of 16 free throws.
“That’s a great basketball team, it’s a great program,” David Sheldon said of Western Reserve. “It’s a team I root for every night. Tonight, was about kids competing against each other.”
“The good thing is it’s Game 2 and not for a district championship,” Chris Sheldon said. “We’re going to be able to walk away and learn a lot from this. We’ll find out the next time we play them in the district tournament whether or not we can answer the bell and seal the deal better than we did this time.”
“I’m happy for the kids but I feel for my brother because us Sheldons are the hardest on ourselves,” David Sheldon said. “Wins you forget about, but losses you remember forever.”
Colonel Crawford made it a sweep on the evening with a 54-44 win in the junior varsity game. Braxton Baker poured in 19 points for the Eagles, while Adam Howard had 13 and Derek Horsley added 11.
Carter Sapienza led Western Reserve with 18 and Chris Buckanan ended with 15.
Box score
Western Reserve 12 11 8 8 — 39
Colonel Crawford 6 6 11 20 — 43
Western Reserve (1-1): Shots 15-49; 3-pt. shots 6-19 (John Skrada 2, Camden Hawkins 2, Jude Muenz, Luke Rowlinson); Free throws 3-7; Rebounds 31 (Luke Rowlinson 6); Turnovers 9. Scoring: John Skrada 5 0 12, Jude Muenz 1 2 5, Camden Hawkins 3 0 8, Luke Rowlinson 5 1 12, Carson Roe 1 0 2.
Colonel Crawford (2-0): Shots 11-38; 3-pt shots 6-17 (Mason Studer 2, Carter Valentine 2, Drayton Burkhart 2); Free throws 15-16; Rebounds 32 (Chase Walker 11); Turnovers 6. Scoring: Mason Studer 4 7 17, Carter Valentine 3 2 8, Drayton Burkhart 2 0 6, Chase Walker 3 4 10, Carson Feichtner 0 2 2.
JV: Colonel Crawford 54-44.