Lady Knights ground the Eagles 54-41

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

ELIDA — In a matchup of two No. 1 seeds, Crestview’s zone defense helped hold Toledo Christian at bay during Thursday night’s Division IV regional semifinal game at the Elida Fieldhouse.

The Lady Knights limited the Eagles to just 13-of-49 (26.5 percent) shooting on the way to a 54-41 victory and a spot in the Elite Eight. In addition, Toledo Christian (16-6) was just 1-of-14 from three point range and Butler University-bound Madison Royal-Davis was held to just nine points, 16 shy of her average.

The Eagles entered the game averaging 65.5 points per game, but had just 16 through two quarters.

“We watched a lot of film because that’s what you do at this time of year and what we saw was, it wasn’t a comfortable spot for them,” Crestview head coach Mark Gregory said of the zone. “They like to go up against a man-to-man. We were ready to play other defenses but we just felt like it was working and things were going well.”

“They were using clock which was exactly what we were hoping for,” Gregory added.

Crestview led 13-11 after the first quarter, with nine points coming on a pair of treys by Bailey Gregory and one by Olivia Cunningham. The Lady Knights expanded the lead to 29-16 at halftime, with Cunningham adding nine more points in the second quarter, including a late triple, while Cali Gregory also added a trey with a minute left in the period.

The Lady Knights pushed the lead to 33-17 early in the third quarter, but Toledo Christian closed the period with a 15-2 run that made it 35-32. Royal-Davis scored seven points in the quarter, while younger sister MacKenzie Royal-Davis added four. She went on to finish with 14 rebounds.

A pair of early fourth quarter foul shots by Toledo Christian’s Cat Jones made it a one point game, 37-36, but the Eagles would draw no closer. A pair of treys by Bailey Gregory and two more by Cali Gregory helped stretch Crestview’s lead to 50-39. The Lady Knights finished the game 9-of-20 from three point range.

“I thought we did a good job screening and I thought we did a good job with communication and that was a big deal tonight, communication – we talked about it all week,” coach Gregory said.

Cunningham led all scorers with 19 points, while Bailey Gregory added 16 and Cali Gregory nine points and assists. Laci McCoy had a game high 15 rebounds, while Cunningham and Myia Etzler each added seven boards. Etzler also had seven blocked shots.

“15 rebounds for Laci and she’s a sophomore, I love that,” the coach said. “Myia battled all night long and all five of my starters played a lot of minutes and they played their tails off. Cali hit some big shots, Bailey hit some big shots, Liv hit some big shots and had some big drives to the basket.”

Crestview (21-3) will return to Elida to face Northwest Conference foe Columbus Grove in the regional finals at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs defeated Buckeye Central 47-38 to advance to the championship game.

“We’re not looking at the game after that, we’re looking at one game now,” Gregory said.

Scoring summary

Crestview 13 16 6 19 – 54
Tol. Christian 11 5 16 9 – 41

Crestview: Bailey Gregory 6-0-16; Cali Gregory 3-0-9; Laci McCoy 2-3-7; Myia Etzler 1-1-3; Olivia Cunningham 7-3-19;

Toledo Christian: Madison Royal-Davis 4-1-9; Jacquelyn Norman 2-1-5; Cat Jones 6-4-17; MacKenzie Royal-Davis 1-8-10