CRESTLINE — In early December, Crestline went to The Furnace and came back unscathed with a key six-point win over Mansfield Christian to open Mid-Buckeye Conference play.
Fast forward almost six weeks, and the teams met again to start the second half of the league slate and the Flames scorched the Bulldogs 48-34 to move into sole possession of first place in the conference.
“That was our first game, their third game … and I think we’re playing pretty good (right now),” Mansfield Christian coach Cary Craner said. “We’ve had two losses (on the road) to Old Fort (54-46 OT) and Hillsdale (44-37), pretty good teams. I told them in the locker room we can’t be content with where we’re at, we gotta want more and get better.”
And that was apparent from the start as the Flames leaned heavily on their defense to cause havoc for the Bulldogs and turned that into opportunities. A 13-9 lead after one grew to 27-14 at the half holding Crestline scoreless in the second quarter for nearly six minutes.
“Defense tonight was key for us,” Craner said. “We played great team defense … we had a lot of help-side defense that was able to get in and stop their drives. When you’re playing good team defense you can shut scorers down, so I give a lot of credit to the boys playing together on defense.”
Kody Lawhorn and Weston Clark hit back-to-back 3s to open the second half for Crestline — sandwiched between was a Josh Hillman bucket at the other end — and it looked as if the Bulldogs were gaining momentum to mount a comeback.
But an intentional foul against Crestline’s Kieran Barnett after he was poked in the eye led to a technical foul being called against coach Paul Webb when he argued the call — or lack thereof — on the court. The 29-20 game quickly became 32-20 thanks to Bubba Morrow going 3-of-4 from the free throw line, and he drilled a 3 on the ensuing possession to stretch a 15-point lead and put the game out of reach.
“When you get yourself into a hole like that, it’s just really hard to get out,” Webb said. “You have to work too hard to get all the way back out and we just weren’t able to do that. We have to do a better job of staying in the game early … a bad night’s just a bad night.
“We didn’t execute, we missed too many shots, we didn’t have any composure tonight. And that includes me, not just the players, but I have to do a better job of holding my composure.”
Turnovers played a key role in the game, too. The Flames limited theirs while the Bulldogs lost count of how many they had committed by the final buzzer.
“We had that one 10-second count and I said we’ll take that over a live ball turnover to layup,” Craner said. “And then we held their scorers to 20 points total. Barnett only had one field goal today and the first time I think he had 15. So we hold the scorers down, we shared the ball really well, got easy looks, and that was the difference.”
“We’ve just gotta do a better job of taking care of the ball. If you lose the turnover battle — which we usually don’t — you’re not gonna win very many games,” Webb added.
Morrow co-led all scorers with 15, Landin Cyphers and Josiah Schleusener chipped in nine apiece of the Flames, Hillman had eight, Callen Harris three, JR Reeder and Hudson Stigall two each. Crestline was paced by Lawhorn’s 15, Clark and Quentin Kapp had six apiece, Barnett five, Rondo Hudson two.
The win gives Mansfield Christian (4-1) a half-game lead over Kidron Central Christian (3-1) with three MBC games to play. The Bulldogs need to win out with games at Kidron (Jan. 23) and Lucas (Feb. 6), then home to St. Peter’s (Feb. 13), and hope the Comets can knock off Mansfield Christian to force a three-way tie at the top.
“That becomes a must win,” Webb said of their next game at Kidron. “I told the kids before the game that this was a must win, but we knew next week was the big one. We let that slip away here, so we’re gonna have to bring our best game because they’re a great team. We can’t play like we did tonight if we’re gonna have an opportunity to win that game.”
The Flames host rival Mansfield St. Peter’s on Jan. 23, travel to winless Lucas on Jan. 30, then host Central Christian on Feb. 6 in the de facto MBC title game.
“St. Pete’s is playing good ball, too, so we gotta prepare for them,” Craner said. “But Kidron will be the last conference game of the year and we gotta be ready for them. It’s in our gym and they’re playing really well — it’ll be a fun one.”