HOLMES TOWNSHIP — Josh Crall is one of the most unassuming stars you will ever see on the basketball floor.
On a night when Wynford honored its senior wing for scoring his 1,000th career point, Crall strapped the Royals on his back, scoring 44 points as the Royals overcame an 11-point deficit to beat Carey, 66-64.
The 44-point outburst was one short of the school record of 45, set by Mike McGuire against Buckeye Central on Jan. 13, 1989.
Still, the top scorer in the Northern 10 Conference was effusive about his teammates in the Royals’ win.
“It was amazing,” Crall said. “The atmosphere was great, and it was a great win. It was great team play. It was great, a great feeling.”
How good was Crall? The Royals trailed by 10, 55-45, on a layup by Carey’s Reece Billock, with 7:26 in the fourth period before Crall took over.
The 6-foot swingman made 18 of 20 free throws for the game, but he was a perfect 12-for-12 with the game on the line.
And it was a six-foot runner in the lane by Crall that gave the Royals their first lead since the second period at 60-59 with 4:06 left.
Gunnar Coffman scored on a layup and Crall added two more free throws, before Carey got a 3-point shot from Casey Crawford and a jumper in the lane from Griffin Summit, to tie the game at 64-64 with 47 seconds left.
The Royals took the ball slowly into the front court and were looking for Crall, but Coffman got a layup with 18.6 seconds left, setting up Carey’s final opportunity to hold the ball.
After a Carey miss in the lane with 4.9 seconds left, a held ball occurred, and the Royals had the possession arrow and the win.
“It just came, and we all played well,” Crall said. “Everything just came for us.”
But Crall was the first person to praise his teammates, especially on the defensive end of the floor.
“Our defense, over the basketball season, has improved so much,” Crall said. “That’s been the difference for sure.”
Wynford coach Steve Mohr said that the final play was a perfect example of what he has been teaching his players.
“We talk all the time about going to our second and third option and tonight we got to our second and third option where our screeners, our post men are the screeners. We want them to rotate to the basket and we got that,” Mohr said.
Carey coach Jamie Young said that the plan to defend Crall was to be physical against him, but that plan evaporated quickly.
“We tried to be physical with him in the first quarter and they kept calling fouls so we couldn’t be physical with him,” Young said. “We wanted to deny him and try and prevent him from getting clean touches, but it didn’t work out for us. He got the ball. A couple of times he hit some uncontested 3s. We were there, we just didn’t put our hands up. He did this to us last year, too. He’s just a great player. He’s the best offensive player in the league. He just has that ability.”
Mohr called Crall the best player in the league but was quick to credit his post players for a huge contribution.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Mohr said of his star. “He just made big shot after big shot. He pretty much carried us. But we’ve had games where he has come out and carried us. But tonight, we got inside scoring. Gunnar Coffman was huge in the low post, to get us 11 points on a very high shooting percentage.”
Carey scored 23 points in the second period and 20 in the third. But Wynford did an outstanding job of defending the Blue Devils at the three-point line. Carey made eight threes in the first three periods, but the Royals held the Blue Devils to one three with the game on the line.
“I thought our defensive discipline paid off,” Mohr said. “They were hitting 3-pointers early and we stayed with the zone and we went out and pressured shooters. There were a couple of instances where we gave up second shots but, for the most part, I thought we did a real nice job on the defensive boards.”
Young felt that Crall’s ability to get to the free throw line was the difference.
“(Crall) did a lot of his damage at the foul line,” Young said. “When you go to the foul line 20 times and you only miss two, you’re going to have a big night. He does a great job of using his body and he can hit shots. You can tell that kid has been working at it.”
Coffman backed up Crall with 11 points. But Mohr said that his team has continued to improve over the last four weeks.
“Take away our poor performance against Bucyrus, and that’s nothing against Bucyrus, but we didn’t play well,” Mohr said. “And when you don’t play well you have to find a way to win the game.
“But I think over this last month we have played pretty good basketball against some pretty good teams and tonight we finally got the reward for a win against a good team.”
The Blue Devils got outstanding balance on offense with four players in double figures. Crawford led the Blue Devils with 16 points and Summit added 13. Dasher and Hoepf scored 10.
“We couldn’t get anything established inside and we had some big buckets from players who came off the bench and helped us,” Young said. “We just weren’t clicking. Wynford just wanted it more than us. I think we took them for granted.”