NORTH ROBINSON — If the Colonel Crawford Eagles are going to win a Northern 10 Athletic Conference title, play from junior Carter Valentine and senior Chase Walker are paramount.

The two 6-foot-5 stars were on full display Saturday night against Buckeye Central.

Valentine dropped six 3-point shots in dropping in 29 points and Walker scored 12 second-half points on his way to 19 as the Eagles overcame a slow start and bested the Bucks, 61-42.

The two Crawford leaders scored 48 of their team’s 61 points on the night.

With the win, the Eagles improved to 3-0 overall, 1-0 in the N10. BC fell to 1-2 overall, 0-1 in the conference.

The Bucks played solid defense in the first half, holding a 10-8 lead after one period before the Eagles got 12 points from Valentine in the second period to take a 30-22 lead at the half.

At that point, Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said that he challenged his team, particularly Walker.

“I got on him at the half,” Sheldon said. “He’s got to be more aggressive scoring. He’s just being too unselfish offensively. He’s got to be more aggressive. He’s athletic, he can finish, he can shoot the jumper. Chase would be the first to admit he didn’t play as well as he could tonight. He had too many sloppy turnovers but in the second half, he definitely stepped up.

“In the first half, we were a little lackadaisical, we were sloppy with the ball,” he added. “We committed too many turnovers at halftime. That’s stuff we have to clean up.”

The second half belonged to Valentine. The senior hit four more 3s as the Eagles went on a 9-2 run to open the second half to take a 39-24 lead. BC never got within 13 points the rest of the way.

“Hats off to Buckeye,” Sheldon said. “They played their tails off. Tom does a good job with them and they hung around. I thought the first three minutes of the third quarter were big. We sorta extended the lead to double figures the rest of the night and that was big for us.”

Buckeye Central coach Tom Howell said that his kids played defense well most of the night.

“Our guys played pretty well defensively,” Howell said. “Our problem right now is on the offensive end. We’re gonna have to change some things around and get some people shots that need to get shots.

“Our last game and this game, we’re playing one half of basketball,” he added. “And that’s in the first half. We have to be able to play two halves.”

Buckeye Central’s Brady Kerschner scored 10 of his team-high 12 points in the second half.

But Sheldon said he was pleased with the way his team played in the final two periods, especially on the defensive end.

“I thought our defense was better in the second half, especially in the third quarter,” Sheldon said. “We just sat down and guarded them in the half-court.”

BC did outrebound the Eagles, 25-22, but committed 26 turnovers to just 13 for CC.

“When we run and share the basketball, we’re pretty good,” Howell said. “I think we get in trouble when the ball stops moving. They did a better job of getting on us defensively in the second half, so you have to give them some credit as well.

“They played a little harder on defense and did that better and they gave us trouble.”

“Carter Valentine shot it well all night long,” Sheldon said. “He’s got strings where he can just score. He can really shoot it and he’s a big-time scorer.”

Sheldon added that his team has to keep getting better because the schedule gets more difficult.

“We have a heck of a stretch coming up, with Upper (Sandusky), Carey, and Mohawk,” Sheldon said. “It’s three of the best teams in our league. This is a great stretch to see where we are at. We’ve gotten off to a good start.”

Colonel Crawford also won the junior varsity game, 46-21. Adam Howard led the Eagles with 13 points. Stephen Sostakowski paced BC with seven.

Box score

Buckeye Central      10     12       6      14 — 42

Colonel Crawford      8     22     11      20 — 61

Buckeye Central (1-2, 0-1 N10): Shots 18-39; 3-pt. shots 2 (Alex Kanney 2); Free throws 4-7; Rebounds 25; Turnovers 26. Scoring: Casey Geissman 3 0 6, Tyler Rose 2 2 6, Alex Kanney 3 0 8, Tyler Sanderson 3 0 6, Brady Kerschner 6 0 12, Damian Dean 1 2 4.

Colonel Crawford (3-0, 1-0 N10): Shots 23-46; 3-pt shots 7 (Carter Valentine 6, Carson Feichtner); Free throws 7-15; Rebounds 22; Turnovers 13. Scoring: Mason Studer 1 1 3, Carter Valentine 10 3 29, Mason McKibben 1 0 2, Drayton Burkhart 1 0 3, Chase Walker 8 3 19, Carson Feichtner 2 0 5.

JV: Colonel Crawford 46-21.