OLIVESBURG – The Crestview boys basketball team’s New Year’s resolution is looking like a two-years’ resolution.
Unwilling to take a foot off the gas against potential Firelands Conference challenger Mapleton on Saturday night, the Cougars turned what was a tie game after one quarter into an all-out, 78-39 drubbing.
Crestview, which stretched its FC win streak to 20 games and its home win streak to 17, will ring in the New Year undefeated for a second consecutive season.
The Cougars (8-0 overall, 4-0 in the FC) swallowed up the Mounties (5-2, 2-2) with suffocating defense while also hammering the visitors on the glass, triggering a fourth-quarter running clock.
It was the first time since January 2021 that Mapleton was held below 40 points.
“We’ve had these long breaks between games and we’ve been spending a lot of our time in practice on our defense,” said Crestview coach John Kurtz, whose squad is looking for its first back-to-back FC crowns since 2000. “I thought tonight our defense was really solid.
“We started getting them into some situations where they turned the ball over and we got run-outs, and we’re pretty good (finishing) on those run-outs.”
It was somewhat of a shocking turnaround in a contest that was locked up at 15-all after the first quarter.
The Mounties actually led 13-12 following a 3-point bucket from Kyle Sloter, but Crestview’s momentum snowballed in the second period when Mapleton was unable to capitalize on multiple offensive rebounds.
The Cougars flexed their athleticism to string together a 27-6 run, turning a 24-20 lead halfway through the second quarter into a 51-26 bulge less than halfway through the third.
Much of the third-quarter success for Crestview came from dominance on the boards. Four different Cougars scored on putbacks while the team tallied the first 14 points of the second half, and the Cougars finished the game with a 32-14 advantage on the glass.
Mapleton coach Nick Hickey said Crestview’s unrelenting length – six CHS players stand at least 6-foot-3 – is rare to see. And with just one Mountie player standing over 6-1 (junior post Donavon Mills is 6-4 and had four blocks Saturday), he said his team’s top priority was just trying to scrap for rebounds.
“I’ve watched a lot of Crestview basketball and you try to keep up with them and give our boys a really good scouting report,” Hickey said. “But one thing they do, every possession, they’re out to win the possession; they just don’t quit.”
Kurtz said the Cougars entered the game shooting an average of 62 percent from the field, and they were even more dialed in than that Saturday, even hitting 7-of-12 from 3-point range.
Double-digit scoring efforts came from Justice Thompson (game-high 20 points), Tyson Ringler (15), Malachi Spoerr (14), Sam Wells (10) and Jarek Ringler (10).
Thompson, averaging more than 20 points per game, hit a turnaround jumper in the lane at the halftime buzzer. Tyson Ringler buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to close out the third.
The Mounties feature their own scoring star in guard Scotty Hickey, who also came into the night averaging better than 20 points per game. But after he scored the game’s first points, the Cougars didn’t allow him another field goal until less than 2 minutes remained in the third quarter.
Hickey, who netted 44 points against Rittman earlier this season, led Mapleton with 12 markers Saturday. Sloter, who got into foul trouble, scored seven of his nine in the first quarter, and Lane Dreibelbis also chipped in nine for MHS.
Saturday marked the seventh time in eight games this season Crestview has won by at least 14 points. When the Cougars ran through the FC at a perfect 14-0 last year, Mapleton gave them one of their biggest challenges at home in a 70-60 final.
That history didn’t repeat itself this time around.
“Their chemistry is better this year, you can tell,” coach Hickey said. “… They just seem like they play better team basketball than they did last year.”
Kurtz, who noted the leadership of Wells and Jarek Ringler in Saturday’s game, remembered last year’s meeting well.
“In that game, we let them ratchet our guards up a little bit,” Kurtz said. “We were just determined that we weren’t going to let them do that tonight.
“It’s a big deal when you’re in a game like this and the score starts getting out of hand that kids just don’t take bad shots,” he added. “I didn’t really notice that happening tonight.”
Crestview next hosts Plymouth on Friday night, while Mapleton will be back on the road the same night at Western Reserve.
