NORTH ROBINSON — A much anticipated matchup took place at Mac Morrison Gymnasium on Saturday, December 7 between the boys hoops squads from Colonel Crawford and Upper Sandusky.

The clash of potential Northern-10 Athletic Conference champions kicked-off the league portion of the schedules for both teams and also marked another game at the home of the Eagles for Cameron McCreary, his second in the gym as a member of the Upper Sandusky Rams.

Play began fierce between the two typically high-scoring teams as Crawford held a one-point lead after the first at 8-7. The second quarter of the contest would also prove to be low scoring with the advantage this time going to the visiting Rams at 11-7 to put them up by three points at the intermission; 18-15.

To begin the second half, it appeared that the two teams would keep on the same low-scoring output trend as Colonel Crawford posted eight in the frame while Upper Sandusky cracked double-digits in the quarter with 10 points. Entering the fourth quarter with the Rams up 28-23, both teams found their respective offenses as both squads would go on to score 22 points in the final quarter of regulation, giving the visitors a five-point victory at 50-45.

Entering Saturday’s contest, Upper had scored 215 points in three games for an average of 71.7 points per game while Crawford posted 148 points in their first two games of the season for an average of 72 points per game.

With the loss, the Eagles fall to 2-1 overall in 2019-2020 and begin N-10 play at 0-1 while the Rams improved their mark to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the league.

Colonel Crawford managed just 16 shot attempts inside the arc against Upper’s defense, converting six of them for buckets. The Eagles fired up 26 three-point attempts, making just nine and finished at 6/9 from the charity stripe. As a team, Crawford pulled in 26 rebounds (7 Offensive, 19 Defensive), dished out 11 assists, had a pair of blocks, two steals and committed just 10 turnovers on the night.

Jordan Fenner led the way in the scoring column for the home team, posting 13 points to go along with four rebounds and two assists. Gavin Feichtner was the only other member of the Eagles to reach double-figures, scoring a dozen while grabbing six boards, and recording an assist and a steal.

Other statistics in the Eagles during their first defeat were: Chase Walker- 7 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block; Carter Valentine- 6 points, 2 rebounds; Mason Studer- 5 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists and Reis Walker- 2 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block.

Three conference games await Colonel Crawford over the next week and a half, starting with a home contest against the visiting Mohawk Warriors on Saturday, December 14. Next Friday, December 20, the Eagles will make the short trip to Bucyrus to clash with the hosting Wynford Royals before turning around and heading to Attica for a clash with the Seneca East Tigers the very next day.