CRESTLINE (Crawford County Now) — When two teams meet with victories at a premium, little things make a big difference.

Crestline hosted Bucyrus Thursday with a combined one win between them coming in. The Lady Bulldogs paid more attention to detail, and the result was a 43-40 non-league victory over the Lady Red.

“We have been working on the turnover ratio. We average 25 turnovers a game,” Crestline coach Mickie Spears said. “I kept telling them, ‘If you do the little things, stop turning the ball over so much, we can win this ball game.’”

The Bulldogs followed the coach’s suggestion. Though they still committed 20 turnovers — five under their average — they also forced a similar 16 miscues out of the Lady Red.

And, with most statistical categories being close, the difference maker for Crestline (2-8) was shooting percentage — 37% to 26% for Bucyrus (0-8).

“I thought we missed some opportunities inside early on,” Bucyrus coach Brian Seybert said. “Our post players were posting up, and we just didn’t get them the ball.”

The Lady Red led early, at 7-4, on a 3 by Karlee Shull. But the Bulldogs went on a 9-4 run to the end of the period to lead 13-11 after one. They never trailed again.

The player that set the shooting standard for the Bulldogs was leading scorer Jocelyn Noblit. The junior southpaw scored 17 of her game-high 21 points in the first half — including all four of her 3-point shots ­— as Crestline eased out to a modest 26-21 lead by halftime.

“I told the girls at the beginning of the game, ‘When we get the lead, we have to play under control,’” Spears said. “When we do, we’re a much better ball team and it showed in the third and fourth quarters. They committed some bad fouls at the end, but we did pretty good for what we have and so young.”

Bucyrus knew that Noblit was the player to stop if there was to be a chance of winning the game. The Lady Red got it done in the second half, but Noblit inflicted the damage in the first two quarters.

“All week long, we told them who you’ve got to stop,” Seybert said. “Noblit’s a tough player and she carried them in the first half. We limited her in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.”

Never far out of it, the Lady Red got to within one twice in the second half — 30-29 in the third quarter and 40-39 with 2:38 left in the game on a basket by freshman Ni’Cia Floyd. But turnovers on two consecutive possessions squelched their chances to tie the game or retake the lead.

Spears thought his team’s defense on Savannah Clark — a size mismatch on the block and who is able to shoot the 3 — was significant. The Bulldogs held Clark to two points in the first half and six for the game. She did grab 10 rebounds.

“I keyed on her like they key on Jocelyn,” Spears said. “I keep telling them, ‘Here’s the shooter,’ and it’s their job to maintain that shooter. We did a really good job. I was really pleased. Normally a good shooter like that will score 20-30 points on us because it gets in our heads and we don’t see where she’s at on the floor.”

So impactful was Noblit on the game that no other Bulldog was in double figures. Addison Hill was next with seven points. Hill also pulled down eight rebounds as did Bridget Belcik.

Shull and Floyd had 12 points each for the Lady Red. Tori Stang had seven boards to second Clark’s game-high 10 caroms.

“Karlee came out of her shell finally and had four 3s,” Seybert said. “She had a couple clutch ones in the second half. Ni’Cia was right there with 12 again.”

Spears viewed the win as the Bulldogs getting a monkey off their backs.

“It’s been over 10 years since Crestline girls beat Bucyrus,” Spears said. “I’m pleased with that.”

“We tried to take Noblit away as much as we could and the girls gave themselves a fighting chance in the end,” Seybert said. “We’re going to learn from and keep building from it.”

Seybert credited his young bench with helping to keep the team in the game.

“I want to give credit to Macie Hubble and Makinsey Weiler for coming in and playing really tough defense on Noblit and helping shut her down and controlling her in the second half,” Seybert said. “We had good minutes from Maci Messerschmidt again today. Our freshmen and sophomores are showing what they can do. We just have to find a way to put it all together.”

Bucyrus won the two-quarter jayvee game, 20-14. Ni’Cia Floyd had a game-high 18 points for the Lady Red. Tianna Jackson had eight for Crestline.

Box score

Bucyrus        5     12      5       5 — 27

Crestline     12       9    18    21 — 60

Bucyrus (0-8): Shots 14-54; 3-pt. shots 4-9 (Karlee Shull 4); Free throws 8-17; Rebounds 35 (Savannah Clark 10, Tori Stang 7); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Ni’Cia Floyd 6 0 12, Macie Hubble 0 2 2, Karlee Shull 4 0 12, Maci Messerschmidt 0 1 1, Lillyan Butchko 2 0 4, Tori Stang 1 1 3, Savannah Clark 1 4 6.

Crestline (2-8): Shots 16-43; 3-pt. shots 6-13 (Jocelyn Noblit 4, Addison Hill, Kylie Kelly); Free throws 5-15; Rebounds 37 (Addison Hill 8, Bridget Belcik 8); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Jocelyn Noblit 7 3 21, Addison Hill 3 0 7, Kylie Kelly 2 0 5, Amarie Silverwood 1 0 2, Kori Nechovski 1 0 2, Baylee Berry 0 1 1, Bridget Belcik 2 1 5.

JV: Bucyrus 20-14 (2 quarters).