Crestview rolls to opening round win

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — Simply put, it was a mismatch on paper and on the court.

No. 4 Crestview, the top overall seed in the Division IV Defiance district, jumped out to a huge early lead and the Lady Knights went on to defeat No. 12 seed North Central 80-12 in the sectional semifinals at Ray Etzler Gymnasium on Wednesday. The victory puts Crestview in the sectional title game against No. 11 seed Fayette on Saturday.

The Lady Knights (21-2) used their superior size and jumped out to a 14-0 lead less than three minutes into the first quarter. As Crestview forced numerous turnovers, the lead grew to 22-3 before Cali Gregory drilled back-to-back triples to make it 28-3 with 90 seconds left in the opening period. By the end of the first quarter, Crestview led 33-3, with 14 of those points coming from Gregory and eight more from 6-2 senior forward Myia Etzler. The 33 points is believed to be a Crestview single quarter scoring record.

“We talk about it all the time, wanting to get out to a quick start,” Crestview head coach Mark Gregory said. “We did a great job tonight. We shared the basketball which was one of our goals for tonight and I’m just so proud of our team. I thought North Central played really hard all night long and I told their coach (Jamie Brown) that they’ve got a lot to be proud of with their effort tonight and their attitude.”

Gregory and younger sister Kaci Gregory each scored five points in the second quarter and the Lady Knights took a 53-7 lead into halftime.

The entire second half was played with a continuous clock and the entire game took 59 minutes from start to finish.

“We got to play everybody lots of minutes and I thought girls that don’t always play as much gave us some great minutes and did some really great things,” Gregory said. “That’s part of the thing we want to continue to grow here in the tournament – getting those opportunities because you never know what you’re going to need somebody down the stretch.”

Crestview was 35-of-53 from the floor (66 percent) and 7-of-11 from the foul line with 25 rebounds and just four turnovers. Cali Gregory finished with 23 points and eight steals, Etzler added 18 points and 10 rebounds, Kaci Gregory tallied 13 points and Ellie Kline finished with 10 points.

“We wanted to be mentally and physically tough tonight and we did a good job with that,” the coach said. “We did a nice job of not giving up a lot of second, third and fourth chance opportunities and we also took really good care of the basketball.”

North Central did not hit a two-point basket all night. The Eagles finished 0-of-11 from two-point range and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, and 3-6 from the free throw. North Central had 10 rebounds and 23 turnovers. Madeline Zimmerman led the Eagles (1-21) with four points.

Saturday’s sectional championship game against Fayette (4-18), the final home game of the season for Crestview, will begin at 3 p.m. at Ray Etzler Gymnasium. Fayette had a first round bye.

“We’re going to watch some film on them and put our game plan together but we’re really focused on continuing to grow and get better,” Gregory said. “It’s another great opportunity to play in front of our home crowd again.”

Box score

Knights 33 20 17 10 – 80
Eagles 3 4 3 2 – 12

Crestview: Myia Etzler 8-2-18; Kaci Gregory 5-2-13; Ellie Kline 4-1-10; Cali Gregory 10-0-23; Haley McCoy 2-0-4; Kennedy Crider 2-2-6; Josie Kulwicki 2-0-4; Eliza Reinhart 1-0-2

North Central: Madeline Zimmerman 1-1-4; Mireya Cruz 1-0-3; Grecia Dominguez 1-0-3; Ava Gruber 0-2-2