NORTH ROBINSON — It was a night for defense between Colonel Crawford and Buckeye Central, as both teams stepped it up on the defensive end of the floor.
The Eagles just played defense a little better.
Crawford was able to take BC out of its comfort zone offensively and came away with a 50-35 win Saturday night.
With the win, Crawford improved to 1-0 in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, 3-0 overall, while the Bucks dropped to 0-1 in the conference, 2-2 overall.
“That’s three games where we guarded very well,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “We were very worried about (Tyler) Sanderson. He’s been off to a great start. We did a wonderful job on him. You look at what he has in the game, six points. He’s been in doubles almost every game. And, to hold them to 35, credit to our guys defending every possession.”
Buckeye Central coach Tom Howell felt that the Eagles simply smothered his offense.
“Offensively, we were stagnant,” Howell said. “I’ll take the blame for that a little bit. A lot of it to be honest with you. We gotta get going on that side. They did a good job of taking away what we have been getting.”
Crawford grabbed a 9-8 lead after the first period before guard Trevor Vogt knocked down three of his four 3-point shots in the second period to take a 22-15 lead at the break. Vogt’s 12 points were the difference in the game in the first two periods.
“In the first half, we ended being down 7, we got some shots in the paint, we got knocked off-balance a little bit and we couldn’t finish,” Howell said.
“They knocked down some 3s. They did a good job; we didn’t control penetration in the first half and left Vogt open and he knocked down some 3s,” he added.
In the third period, Crawford did a better job of getting penetration in the paint and guard Derek Horsley benefitted, scoring eight of his 11 points as the Eagles took a six-point lead midway through the third period and led by as many as 14, 33-19, on a Horsley jumper in the lane with 2:05 left in the period.
Buckeye got buckets from Jack Phillips, Sanderson, and Stephen Sostakowski to cut the lead to 35-25 entering the final frame.
“In the third quarter we bumped it up,” Sheldon said. “We talk a lot about score, stop, score. We got stops and we scored, stop and we got it up to double figures and we never looked back and that’s a credit to our guys.”
A Sostakowski free throw cut the Crawford lead to 38-31 with 5:46 left in the game, but Crawford got a Ryan McMichael free throw, a Vogt lay-in, a follow from Jacob Maddy and a Braxton Baker 3 to increase the lead to 45-31 with 3:18 left.
“In a possession after possession game like this, we only gave up 50 points,” Howell said. “We gotta be there. We gotta be there.”
The Eagles got outstanding balance offensively. Vogt led the Eagles with 15 points, Baker tossed in 12 and Horsley added 11.
“We had three guys in doubles, it’s great to see Vogt and we hit seven 3s,” Sheldon said. “We know we can shoot it and it’s been a bear. We’ve had Monday, Wednesday, Saturday games and tonight we shot it. I knew we could, we just haven’t had a basketball in our hands.
“Now we have a nice week break before we get back to some preseason stuff,” he added. “But we shot it very well. Trevor Vogt stepped up and had a big game and that’s what we need. We need more options. Derek Horsley running the show, people are going to key on Braxton and Jake Maddy.”
Sheldon said he respects BC defensively, but his team found a way to get the win.
“Tom Howell teams always play great defense,” Sheldon said. “They had us scouted, they knew what to do. They do a phenomenal job. I thought Jake Maddy played a great game, because they doubled him in the post all night and he found open guys for kickout 3s, and we got some layups. That’s what we told him and Baker. Sometimes you have to be great passers and rely on our other guys.”
Sostakowski paced BC with 17 points on the night. The BC senior did a nice job of getting into the lane.
Buckeye Central won the reserve game, 32-31 in overtime. Freshman Alec Phillips led the Bucks with 15 points. Lucas Foy paced Colonel Crawford with 12.
Box score
Buckeye Central 8 7 10 10 — 35
Colonel Crawford 9 13 13 15 — 50
Buckeye Central (2-2, 0-1 N10): Shots 13-34; 3-pt. shots 3 (Drew Rose, Stephen Sostakowski, Manny Mullins); Free throws 6-11; Rebounds 15; Turnovers 6. Scoring: Drew Rose 3 0 7, Stephen Sostakowski 7 6 17, Tyler Sanderson 3 0 6, Manny Mullins 1 0 3, Jack Phillips 1 0 2.
Colonel Crawford (3-0, 1-0 N10): Shots 17-36; 3-pt shots 7 (Trevor Vogt 4, Braxton Baker 2, Derek Horsley); Free throws 9-13; Rebounds 21; Turnovers 5. Scoring: Trevor Vogt 5 1 15, Ethan Holt 0 3 3, Derek Horsley 3 2 11, Braxton Baker 5 0 12, Jacob Maddy 2 2 6, Ryan McMichael 1 1 3.
JV: Buckeye Central 32-31 (OT).