{"id":128912,"date":"2020-03-03T23:28:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T04:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=128912"},"modified":"2020-03-03T23:31:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T04:31:09","slug":"columbus-grove-outduels-the-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/03\/03\/columbus-grove-outduels-the-knights\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Grove outduels Crestview 50-42"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELIDA — No. 8 seed Crestview trimmed an 11-point halftime deficit down to three early in the fourth quarter, but the Knights could get no closer and fell to No. 1 seed and Associated Press Division IV poll champion Columbus Grove 50-42 in the district semifinals at the Elida FieldHouse on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Crestview’s Kalen Etzler congratulates Columbus Grove’s Blake Reynolds after Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal game between the two NWC schools.<\/strong> Wyatt Richardson\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The loss ended Crestview\u2019s season at 13-12, while Columbus Grove improved to 24-0 and advanced to Friday\u2019s district championship game against Kalida. The No. 4 seed Wildcats upset No. 2 seed Ottoville 44-40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights trailed 13-9 after one quarter and were down just one, 16-15, with 3:20 left in the second period when 6-8 junior Kalen Etzler picked up his third personal foul and had to sit for the remainder of the half. From there, Columbus Grove went on a 13-2 run to grab a 28-17 halftime lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey took advantage of that (third foul),\u201d Crestview head coach Doug Eztler said. \u201cHaving Kalen in the game at both ends for us is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou get the best player off the floor, whether it\u2019s him scoring at the offensive end of the floor or challenging every shot at the defensive end, it definitely changes things,\u201d Columbus Grove head coach Chris Sautter said. \u201cWe told our guys we had to push it to double figures with him off the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights clawed back into it in the third quarter by switching from man-to-man to zone defense and holding the Bulldogs to just six points, while getting five points from JJ Ward and four from Brody Brecht. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt slowed them down a little bit and as long as we knew where (Tayt) Birnesser was at and they liked to attack that short corner middle, I thought we did a good job of taking those two things away,\u201d Etzler said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t hit shots,\u201d Sautter said. \u201cGive them a lot of credit, it worked against St. John\u2019s too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back-to-back buckets by Ward pulled Crestview to within three, 36-33 with 6:10 left to go in the final period, but Gabe Clements immediately drilled a three pointer, then followed up with a steal and layup to increase Columbus Grove\u2019s lead to 41-33. Seven of Clement\u2019s nine points came in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think if you look at JJ\u2019s progression this whole year, as the year went on he just got better and better,\u201d Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. \u201cHe bought in defensively and he took great shots for us. He\u2019s a good basketball player and we\u2019re looking for big things from him next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights were held scoreless for just over five minutes, while until an offensive rebound and slam dunk by Kalen Etzler with 1:07 left in the game. Meanwhile, Blake Reynolds converted 7-8 free throws in the final period and led all scorers with 22 points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was good enough to win and that\u2019s all that matters,” Sautter said. \u201cWhen you play teams twice they\u2019re going to be pretty well prepared for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etzler finished with 12 points, including seven in the final quarter, while Ward and Brecht each scored 11. Carson Kreischer scored six of his eight points in the second quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the loss, Etzler was pleased with his team\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou never like to lose, you\u2019d like to see the season keep going, but I was proud of after being down like we were at halftime there was no quit in us,” Etzler said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scoring summary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview 9 8 12 13 \u2013 42
Col. Grove 13 15 6 16 \u2013 50<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview: Kalen Etzler 5-1-12; Brody Brecht 5-0-11; Carson Kreischer 3-2-8; JJ Ward 5-0-11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbus Grove: Blake Reynolds 6-10-22; Tayt Birnesser 2-3-6; Evan Hopkins 3-0-7; Gabe Clement 4-0-9; Ethan Halker 2-0-4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor ELIDA — No. 8 seed Crestview trimmed an 11-point halftime deficit down to three early in the fourth quarter, but the Knights could get no closer and fell to No. 1 seed and Associated Press Division IV poll champion Columbus Grove 50-42 in the district semifinals at the Elida FieldHouse on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 17:29:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}