NORTH ROBINSON — In a much-anticipated contest, the Colonel Crawford Eagles boys basketball team played host to the Northmor Golden Knights on Tuesday evening at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.
The gym was packed and incredibly warm and the spectators were treated to a very competitive matchup. When time expired to end the game, the Northmor Golden Knights came away with the 12-point victory, 59-47.
Northmor improves to 7-2 on the year, as Colonel Crawford drops to 7-3.
See more photos from the big game in the Galion Inquirer’s online gallery.
The Knights got out to the early 3-0 lead in the first quarter on a three-point jumper by Zach Parrott. From that moment, Northmor would never look back and lead the entire contest. After the first quarter of play, the score was 15-12 in favor of the Knights. Northmor kept the momentum going into the second period and went on to outscore the home team, 14-6 to take the 29-18 lead at the intermission. Colonel Crawford was able to slightly close the gap out of halftime but still found themselves down by eight heading into the fourth quarter, 39-31. The Golden Knights kept their foot on the gas and took the fourth quarter, 20-16 en route to the 12-point win.
Colonel Crawford’s scrappy freshman Cameron McCreary would lead all scorers on the evening with 21 points on 9/18 shooting, including 3/8 from the perimeter. Brody Martin chipped in nine points in the loss. Northmor did a solid job of shutting down Crawford big man Heath Starkey. Starkey managed just four points, but grabbed 10 rebounds and recorded a steal and a block.
Brock Pletcher led Northmor with 19 points while recording four steals, three assists and a rebound. Tyler Kegley had a double-doube with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go with two assists and a block. Meechie Johnson chipped in 11 points and four rebounds in the win.
Girls Basketball: Crestline gets first win in two years
CRESTLINE — A lot has happened in the world of sports in the last 693 days. One thing that hadn’t happened in that span of time was a win for the Crestline Lady Bulldogs basketball team.
Well, all of that changed on Thursday night when the Lady ‘Dogs played host to fellow Mid-Buckeye Conference competitors, the Mansfield Christian Lady Flames. Crestline played their hearts out for all 32 minutes of the contest and came away with their first victory in almost two calender years by a final score of 49-34.
The Lady Bulldogs are now 1-10 on the season and hold a conference record of 1-4.
“We were extremely well prepared for this game and I believe that gave the girls a ton of confidence that they could win tonight,” said first-year head coach Aaron Bluey.
It was clear that Crestline was determined to gain the “W” from the start of the game. Although the Lady Flames put up a fight in the first quarter, the Bulldogs refused to surrender. At the start of the second period, the score was knotted up at 11 points apiece. Crestline made sure that it would not stay that way any longer and outscored Mansfield Christian 11-2 in the quarter to take a 22-13 lead into the locker room at the half. A fired up Lady Bulldogs team emerged from the intermission to put up 13 points in the third to the Flames’ eight points, giving them the 35-21 advantage heading into the final quarter. Mansfield Christian did their best to try and claw their way out of the 14-point deficit but came up short as Crestline took the fourth, 14-13 en route to the 15-point, much needed victory.
The leading scorer for Crestline on the night was Lauryn Tadda, with 22 points on nine field goals and 4/6 shooting from the free-throw line. Alandra Tesso poured in three-three pointers and went 2/2 from the line for her 11 points in the victory. Dennesa Baker had eight points to go along with five of the teams’ 15 rebounds. Brianna Briggs had four points, Sarah Toy chipped in a three-pointer and Lydia Tadda hit a free-throw to round out the remainder of the scoring for the ‘Dogs.
“Our kids are not quitters. There have been a lot of ups and down this year but our girls kept working hard and believing in themselves,” Bluey said.
Girls Basketball: Cardington defeats Colonel Crawford
NORTH ROBINSON — The Colonel Crawford Lady Eagles played host to the Cardington Lady Pirates on Wednesday night in a non-conference matchup. Cardington would come away with the victory by a final tally of 56-44.
With the loss, Crawford drops to 6-4 overall. Cardington improves to 10-3.
Colonel Crawford would find themselves trailing throughout the contest. After one quarter of play, the Eagles were already in an 18-13 hole and an eight-point deficit at the half, 33-25. Cardington would outscore Colonel Crawford 23-19 in the second half to secure the win.
Alexus Burkhart had a big night for the Lady Eagles. Burkhart lead the team with 19 points on the night and in the process recorded her 1,000th points of her career at Crawford.
Abbi Teglovic would chip in 11 points in the Eagles’ effort, Ashley Gwirtz contributed nine points and Abbie Bradshaw would finish up the Crawford scoring with five points.
Swimming: Eagles outswim Ontario
ONTARIO — The Colonel Crawford Eagles swim teams were on the road at Ontario High School to meet up with the home Warriors and the Crestline Bulldogs. Both squads for the Eagles took away wins on the night.
The girls team from Colonel Crawford won the tri-meet with 132 points, outlasting Ontario with 66 points and Crestline with 15 points. The Eagles took first place in every event except the 500-yard freestyle race.
Madison Sharp, Drew Krassow, Jillianne Gregg and Pierce Krassow got the evening started with a win in the 200-yard medley relay event, finishing in a time of 2:04.53. Sharp and Gregg would also swim their way to two individual wins on the night. Sharp took first in the 100-yard freestyle (1:02.11) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:07.73). Gregg was the winner in the 50-yard freestyle (26.00) and the 100-yard butterfly (1:13.09). Crawford also got two wins from Kennedy Speck. Speck finished the 200-yard individual medley race with a time of 2:39.57 and the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:18.74. Pierce Krassow took home a win in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 2:11.44.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Sharp, Hailey Ratliff, P.Krassow and Gregg won their event in a time of 1:49.87. The Eagles also took the victory in the final event of the evening, the 400-yard freestyle. The team of Ratliff, Karlie Kurtzman, D.Krassow and Chloe Carman swam their way to the win with a time of 4:39.18.
Colonel Crawford’s boys team won the meet with 109 points over Ontario (61) and Crestline (8).
The Eagles got off to a fast start. Nic Motter, Keton Pfeifer, Jake Johnson and Alex Hershey won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:55.11. Same swimmers but in a different order; Hershey, Motter, Pfeifer and Johnson took first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay, winning with a time of 1:40.26.
Motter and Johnson would also grab the four individual wins for the Eagles. Motter took first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:22.16) and the 500-yard freestyle (5:34.69). Johnson won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.22 and the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:05.42.
Boys Basketball: Northmor beats Elgin
GALION — Can anyone stop the Northmor Golden Knights boys basketball team?
After their convincing win against Colonel Crawford on Tuesday, the Knights were at home on Thursday night and beat Elgin 54-30.
With the victory, Northmor stands at 8-2 overall for the season and an undefeated 4-0 in MOAC Blue play. Elgin drops to 2-6 overall and 1-3 with the loss.
The first quarter of play would prove to dictate the outcome of the game. Northmor stormed out to a big lead after one quarter of play, 20-2. Trying to dig their way out of a big hole, Elgin put up 12 points in the second quarter by the Knights would add 17 more points to take a hefty lead into halftime, 37-14. The Comets came out flat in the third, scoring just six points as Northmor added an additional 11 to take a 48-20 lead into the final period of play. Elgin would outscore Northmor in the fourth, 10-6 but would land well short of the deficit they found themselves in.
Elgin did not have a scorer with more than seven points on the contest. Northmor would have four players finish in double figures.
Meechie Johnson led the way for head coach Zach Ruth’s Knights, scoring 16 points, adding four assists, three rebounds and three steals to his point total. Tyler Kegley scored 12 points to go with five rebounds, three assists and a block. Brock Pletcher also contributed 12 points.
Boys Basketball: South Central too much for Bulldogs
CRESTLINE — The Crestline Bulldogs boys basketball team hosted the South Central Trojans in a non-league matchup on Tuesday night. The struggling Bulldogs couldn’t seem to get things going as South Central lead the entire game en route to a 68-47 victory.
With the loss, Crestline drops to 1-7 overall on the year and remains winless at 0-4 in the Mid-Buckeye Conference.
The Bulldogs did keep it close throughout the first half of play, trailing just 19-11 after one quarter and 35-30 at halftime. The second half was a different story however as the Trojans outscored Crestline in the third quarter, 22-9 to begin to pull away and then edged the Bulldogs in the fourth, 11-8 to secure the victory.
As a team, Crestline shot just 18/48 (38%) from the field, including 3-12 (25%) from three-point range. The Bulldogs would continue to struggle at the charity stripe, shooting 40% as a team, hitting just eight of 20 attempts. The ‘Dogs recorded 38 rebounds as a team, accumulated seven assists, four steals and three blocks all the while commiting 21 turnovers.
Ty Clark lead the way for Crestline, scoring 15 points on 7/11 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.
The Trojans’ Simon Blair led all scorers with 22 points. Jason Hale recorded 11 points and 14 rebounds.
