3/4/2010
Crestview defense and free throws tame Bearcats, 57-45
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| Drew Bittner/Times Bulletin
Crestview’s Rob Cook (32) puts up a shot over Spencerville’s Levi Krouskop during a sectional basketball game on Wednesday, March 3, in Van Wert. |
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BY KIRK DOUGAL
Times Bulletin Editor
kdougal@timesbulletin.com
VAN WERT - Crestview extended their year and avenged a regular season loss when they defeated Spencerville, 57-45, in a sectional opener for both teams at Van Wert High School on Wednesday night.
The game started with both teams on fire from the outside. Crestview's Brad Miller hit a trey on the first trip down the court and then Spencerville's Trevor Hardeman answered with a turnaround jumper on the block. Back came the Knights' Steven Rickard with an old-fashioned three-point play and the Bearcats answered again, this time Dan Binkley from downtown.
Back and forth the two teams battled, neither team backing down and both continuing to put the ball in the bucket. Spencerville's Kevin Lenhart, who hit seven three-point shots in their last regular season game, nailed two from beyond the arc, including one at the buzzer from deep in the right corner to give Spencerville a 17-14 lead at the end of one quarter.
In the second period the pace slowed down, not on effort, but on offense as both defenses stepped to the forefront. Spencerville's Levi Krouskop continued to score off the blocks on spin moves and put backs but that was about all the Bearcats could muster as Crestview extended their defense into the outside shooting lanes.
But Crestview had their own offensive problems. They did not score their first points of the quarter until the 5:04 mark when Evan Vining drove into the lane for two. But once he found his way there, Vining kept going back. The senior broke down his man twice more and scored on drives into the paint to help narrow the gap by one. At the halftime break, Spencerville led 24-22.
The third quarter proved to be the decisive period. Rickard took the opening trip and made a three from the left wing to give Crestview their first lead since early in the game. Spencerville answered back with Krouskop on the receiving end of a nice interior pass and bucket. But Vining kept driving to the paint and post player Rob Cook came alive with a put back and a 12-footer from the baseline. For the second straight quarter, only one other Bearcat scored besides Krouskop and it was not enough. Crestview had the final say when they worked the clock down for the last shot and Nick Adam drained a three from the right corner for a 38-32 Knight lead.
It was threes-and-frees that sewed up the game for Crestview in the final quarter. Rickard again started with a trey and then followed that with a runout, foul and conventional three-point play. A little bit later, Adam again connected on a trey from the right side of the offensive set. But it was the Knights' free throw shooting where the rest of the points would come. They went 11 for 17 in the quarter to account for their 19 points.
Meanwhile, Spencerville again saw Krouskop and only one other player score in the third straight quarter, this time Hardeman who had nine points.
"Good teams create their own opportunities and Crestview did that tonight," said Spencerville coach Kevin Sensabaugh. "In the second half they beat us to loose balls and they beat us to rebounds. I thought they were a little bit tougher than us in the second half. The first half was a good, solid, well-played game. They were tougher and more physical and it really affected us because they shoved us off screens a little and it was tougher for us to get open and we didn't respond as well as we should have. I didn't feel like it was a disappointing year. Disappointing to end this fast but I was pleased with our guys effort all year long. Our execution has to get better but we are a young team and hopefully we can learn from some of the mistakes that we made this year and continue to get better."
Crestview coach Jeremy Best liked what he saw in the first half from his club, despite trailing, and made only some slight adjustments for the big third quarter run.
"I thought we were a little quick on some of our possessions in the first half, a little anxiety there on the offensive end," he said. "And they hit some shots in the first half. We didn't really change much. We said 'Let's just go out and continue to do what we do and play man and stop the dribble-drive penetration.' That was huge tonight. I though we played about was well offensively in certain stretches - ran a little time, got good shots."
Best said that part of their defensive game plan was to focus on the Spencerville outside shooters, even to the point of leaving Cook alone in the post with no backside help.
"We saw the Lenhart kid hit seven threes on Monday when we saw them play and that added a whole other dimension to their team because Hardeman and Binkley are so good off the dribble. So we thought we had to pick our poison a little and maybe we sacrificed a little bit in the paint to make them kick out. Give a lot of credit to the Krouskop kid. He played very well. He's a strong kid and he did some really good things. But (Cook) grabbed some key rebounds and we hit some free throws."
Krouskop led Spencerville with 18 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Hardeman also made double figures on the strength of his strong fourth quarter, putting in 11 points.
Crestview was led by Rickard's 18 points and Vining's 15. Cook led all players with ten rebounds on the night.
Unofficially, Spencerville was 20 of 51 from the field for 39 percent, including four of 17 (24%) from beyond the arc. In the second half, however, they missed all nine attempts. They made only one of six free throws on the night.
Crestview shot a hot 18 of 34 (53%) from the field, bolstered by a sizzling nine of 14 (64%) in the second half. They were five of 11 for 45 percent from beyond the arc on the night and also shot a solid 16 of 22 from the charity stripe for 72 percent, led by Vining's seven of ten performance.
Despite the slow rebounding start and Krouskop's big night, Crestview won the battle of the boards, 23-19. The teams played to a tie with each having ten turnovers for the game.
Crestview will play Friday evening at 8 p.m. in their sectional final game at Van Wert High School against Ottoville.
1 2 3 4 Totals
Spencerville 17 7 8 13 45
Crestview 14 8 16 19 57
Spencerville - Hardeman 5-1-11, Lenhart 2-0-6, Krouskop 9-0-18, Bowers 1-0-2, Binkley 3-0-8, Roberts 0-0-0, Goecke 0-0-0 Totals 20-1-45
Crestview - Zaleski 0-0-0, Miller 2-4-9, Adam 2-0-6, Rickard 6-4-18, Gibson 1-0-2, Vining 4-7-15, Cook 3-1-7, Roehm 0-0-0 Totals 18-16-57
3 Pts. - Spencerville (4) - Lenhart (2), Binkley (2); Crestview (5) - Miller, Adam (2), Rickard (2)
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