OLIVESBURG — Sam Wells did his best Kevin Love impersonation Thursday night.
Wells, Crestview’s 6-foot-3 senior forward, scored a career-high 20 points as the Cougars thundered to a 70-33 win over Norwalk St. Paul in a matchup of Firelands Conference unbeatens.
Love endeared himself to Cleveland Cavaliers fans with his ability to rebound the ball and thread the needle with length-of-the-floor outlet passes.
Wells borrowed a page from Love’s playbook Thursday, jump-starting Crestview’s transition game with several lengthy outlets that found their targets more often than not.
“It makes the game a lot faster, which is what we like,” said Wells, who scored nine points in the first quarter as the Cougars (11-0 overall, 6-0 in the Firelands Conference) blew out to a 22-4 lead. “It makes the other team a lot more tired and gives us an advantage.”
With Wells leading the charge, Crestview went on an 18-0 first-quarter run to turn a 2-2 tie in the opening minute into a 20-2 Cougars’ advantage after a Jarek Ringler layup with 56 seconds left in the opening period.
St. Paul (7-2, 5-1) never recovered.
“Before the Christmas break, we were beating people but we weren’t playing great defense,” Crestview coach John Kurtz said. “We could get away with that because we could score, but in my experience that’s going to catch up with you.
“We just really challenged our kids … and our kids have responded. In the first quarter, our ‘D’ was pretty phenomenal.”
One of five seniors on the roster, Wells has become the team’s vocal leader. It’s a role he has embraced.
“I’m comfortable with it,” Wells said. “I feel like I have to be the leader of the team, me and Jarek both. I like doing it.”
To that end, Wells came up with the team’s defensive mantra: It’s a choice.
“It came from my dad,” Wells said. “It means you have to choose to be physical and choose to play good defense.
“You can’t just come out there and do it. It’s always been a choice.”
The Cougars led 39-11 at the half and 56-26 after three. Tyson Ringler triggered the running clock with a conventional three-point play early in the fourth quarter.
Justice Thompson led Crestview with 21 points, followed by Wells’ 20. Jarek Ringler and Tyson Ringler each had nine and Dylan Bruner added eight.
Evan Wangler led St. Paul with 12. Nolan McCall added 10 and Jacob Bocock had seven.
The Cougars has won 22 straight Firelands Conference games dating to the 2021-22 season. Crestview’s last FC loss came against Monroeville on Feb. 8, 2022.
The Cougars were a perfect 14-0 in FC play last year. The Conference title was Crestview’s first since going back-to-back in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.
“Our kids want to win the conference. There was such a long dry spell over here,” Kurtz said. “You don’t want to go back to the way it was.”
