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Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Knights ground the DSJ Blue Jays 41-26

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — Rock solid defense and a productive night at the foul line were two big keys in Crestview’s 41-26 victory over Delphos St. John’s Wednesday night.

Crestview’s Mitch Temple scored 11 points against Delphos St. John’s. Bob Barnes/file photo

The Knights (6-2) held the Blue Jays to 9-of-33 shooting, including just 3-of-20 in the first half. In addition, Crestview connected on 15-of-19 free throws, compared to 5-of-11 by Delphos St. John’s (4-4).

“If we were going to win the game we had to do a good job of taking away their main scorers and I’m very proud of our effort tonight,” Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. “They do a great job of driving baseline, they do a great job of getting 3’s in the corner and I though we took that away and made them do some different things.”

“It was a great bounce back game for us,” the coach added.

Crestview raced out to a 14-2 after one quarter, including a pair of treys by Mitch Temple. Points were tough to come by in the second quarter as the Blue Jays outscored the Knights 7-4 but still trailed 18-9 at the break.

“You don’t expect to bust out to a 12 point lead in the first quarter against St. John’s,” Etzler said.

Crestview was able to extend the lead to 27-15 after three quarters. The Knights were forced to play the final five minutes of the period without Carson Hunter, who was whistled for his fourth personal foul.

Nolan Schwinnen led all scorers with 12 points, all in the second half, while Temple led Crestview with 11 points. Rontae Jackson added 10 points and five rebounds. Nasir Easterling added six points and seven rebounds off the bench.

“I think this could have been Nasir’s best game of the season,” Etzler said. “They had cut it to six and he got a big offensive putback and plus one opportunity. Defensively he walled up and did a great job rebounding.”

Delphos St. John’s will play at Pandora-Gilboa tonight and Crestview will return to action January 7 at Bluffton.

Scoring summary

Crestview 14 4 9 14 – 41
St. John’s 2 7 6 11 – 26

Crestview: Gavin Etzler 0-6-6; Rontae Jackson 4-2-10; Mitch Temple 3-3-11; Carson Hunter 1-2-4; Nate Lichtle 1-2-4; Nasir Easterling 3-0-6

Delphos St. John’s: Landen Grothaus 1-1-3; Noan Schwinnen 5-0-12; JJ Bonifas 1-0-3; Ethan Druckemiller 0-3-3; Landon Elwer 2-1-5

JV: Crestview 36-23

POSTED: 12/30/21 at 4:40 am. FILED UNDER: Sports