{"id":201152,"date":"2026-01-02T23:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=201152"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:35:19","slug":"improving-knights-top-paulding-63-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/01\/02\/improving-knights-top-paulding-63-51\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Knights top Paulding 63-51"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

CONVOY — Crestview head coach Doug Etzler knew it would take a total team effort for his team to defeat a strong Paulding squad and the Knight mentor was correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone who got in the game contributed in one way or another and as a result, the Knights prevailed 63-51 over the Panthers at Ray Etzler Gymnasium Friday night. The win evened Crestview\u2019s record at 5-5, while Paulding fell to 6-3.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Will Sheets powers his way to the basket during Friday’s game against Paulding. Sheets finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. Wyatt Richardson\/VW independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of our guys,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got so many guys offensively that are really good and they can shoot the ball and we kind of muck it up a little bit. I think everybody who played tonight, which was pretty much our roster \u2013 they all came in and gave us very good minutes and to be a successful team that\u2019s playing a team like Paulding, you have to have everybody step up and do their best on a night where they\u2019re playing more because of foul trouble in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayden Perrott sparked Crestview in the opening quarter by scoring 10 of his game high 23 points and leading his team to an 18-9 advantage at the end of the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought we might have a little bit of an advantage on the perimeter quickness-wise if we could make them come out and guard us and I thought Hayden (Perrott) did a great job doing that tonight,\u201d Etzler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview held Paulding to single digits again in the second quarter and went into halftime with a 33-18 lead. Owen Heckler led the way with seven of Crestview\u2019s 15 points in the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the third quarter, Will Sheets scored 10 of his 14 points and Perrott added six more and the Knights increased their lead to 55-36 at the end of the period. Paulding\u2019s Blake Rhonehouse hit two of his five treys in the third quarter and Tyson Manz added six of his points in the period. Manz added six more points in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview spread the floor in the fourth quarter but the Panthers were able to outscore the Knights 15-8 in the period, prompting a pair of timeouts by Etzler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really wanted to move the basketball with the pass but I didn\u2019t think we did as good as we could have with that in the fourth quarter,\u201d Etzler stated. \u201cThey were trying to foul but we wanted them to chase the foul and not hold it and let them come get us, but I thought we at least handled the ball well enough and made good enough passes that we could get to the free throw line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the game, the Knights shot 57 percent from the floor (25-of-44) and 13-of-23 from the free throw line. Paulding was 19-of-39 shooting and 7-of-11 from the foul line. Crestview had a 27-18 rebounding advantage, including eight by Sheets and the Knights turned the ball over just seven times, compared to 11 by Paulding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did a good job of taking care of the ball and that\u2019s tough to do against a team that\u2019s as long as they are,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cWe tried to simulate that in practice with our JV guys but its obviously not the same type of length to go against that and we haven\u2019t seen a lot of full court pressure this year so I\u2019m really proud of the way the guys handled it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great win for us at home,\u201d he added. \u201cWe haven\u2019t played extremely well at home so it\u2019s a big win for us over the holiday break. We\u2019ve increased our play a little bit and we\u2019re hoping to get a little better each night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview will travel to Antwerp tonight and Paulding will host Edon on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough place to play,\u201d Etzler said of Antwerp. \u201cCoach (Doug) Billman always has them prepared and Zaine (McMichael) is one of the best guards in the area so we\u2019re going to have to make sure that we know where he\u2019s at at all times. What makes him so good is he can shoot it, but he\u2019s great at getting to the basket. If you foul him he\u2019s going to make his free throws, but he\u2019s crafty around the rim and we have to make sure we make everything he does tough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Box score<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview  18  15  22   8 \u2013 63<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paulding      9    9 18  15 \u2013 51<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview: <\/strong>Hayden Perrott 9-5-23; Liam Putman 2-2-6; Cash Hammons 4-4-8; Owen Heckler 5-2-12; Will Sheets 7-0-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paulding:<\/strong> Blake Rhonehouse 5-0-15; Jalen Manz 2-0-4; Tyson Manz 4-6-15; Javvon Stiltner 1-0-2; Xander Kuckuck 5-1-11; Grady Barton 2-0-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Paulding 33-30<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hayden Perrott (23) streaks to the basket for two of his game high 23 points. Wyatt Richardson photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports CONVOY — Crestview head coach Doug Etzler knew it would take a total team effort for his team to defeat a strong Paulding squad and the Knight mentor was correct. Everyone who got in the game contributed in one way or another and as a result, the Knights prevailed 63-51 over the […]<\/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-201152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 21:04:54","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\/201152","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=201152"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201170,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201152\/revisions\/201170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}