By James Massara

MORRAL — After a slow offensive start to the game, both Ridgedale and Wynford relied on strong offensive quarters from underclassmen during Northern 10 Athletic Conference boys basketball action Friday as the Royals defeated Ridgedale, 58-45.

After building a 20-11 halftime lead, the Royals (3-0, 2-0 N10) looked to the team and league’s leading scorer, sophomore guard Josh Crall.

Just more than one minute into the second half, Crall drove the lane and was fouled during his shot to send him to the free throw line. Crall connected on both attempts.

Crall went quiet for the next four minutes before once again moving through traffic in the lane to pick up the basket and the foul. One minute after finishing the and-one play, Crall gave the Rockets (1-3, 0-2 N10) a case of déjà vu by driving the key once again picking up the and-one score.

“I like to drive and try to get to the basket,” Crall said. “It gets me to the line or opens up other shots. I don’t care how I get the points. I just want the win.”

Crall went 4-4 from the free throw line in the final minute of the third quarter. He scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the third quarter. The Royals won the third quarter 19-9 to extend their lead over Ridgedale, 39-20.

“Josh is going to get his points, but I think he’d be the first to tell you he didn’t have his best game offensively,” Engel said. “He didn’t finish in the first half, and maybe there was traffic and maybe there wasn’t. That being said, he didn’t have his best game and still had 23 points so I’m definitely happy about that.”

Wynford extended its lead with a sophomore, so Ridgedale countered with a freshman.

With less than four minutes remaining in the game, Ridgedale’s Adam Beard put in a layup with a foul, but was unable to connect on the foul shot.

Beard was not alone in his foul shot struggles as the Rockets went just 6-16 (37%) from the line in the game.

“We went 6-16 from the free throw line and I think had 22 turnovers,” Loney said. “You can still find a way to win while struggling at the line or comment a few too many turnovers, but it’s nearly impossible when you do both.”

Despite the free throw struggles, Beard continued to find the bottom of the net.

Thirty seconds after his and-one attempt, Beard connected on his first 3-point basket and connected on his second twenty seconds later.

“Credit to him, he has one of the quickest releases in our league and when a shooter gets hot you have to close out on them and we didn’t do a good job of that,” Engel said. “And credit to Ridgedale, they played hard the whole way and just missed some shots that we were fortunate of.”

Beard then scored two short-range baskets with less than two minutes remaining and scored for the final time with a 3-point basket with 37.2 seconds left in the game to bring the Rockets within 11 points of the Royals and give Beard his team-high 17 points.

Beard said he found his groove after his first basket of the quarter and also felt the desperation of the clock running out.

“It was definitely both,” Beard said. “I started to feel it, but, yeah, I knew we just needed the points and time was running out, so I kept shooting.”

That basket was the final of the game for the Rockets.

A pair of free throws by Cole Heinlen with 24 seconds left pushed the score to its final tally.

There was no junior varsity game.

Wynford next hosts Colonel Crawford Dec. 16 and Ridgedale travels to Upper Sandusky at the same time.

 

Score by quarter

Wynford- 8    12       19       19 — 58

Ridgedale- 4  7          9          25 — 45