MANSFIELD — John Kurtz felt right at home and a little lost at the same time.
Kurtz, who was the head coach at Mansfield Christian from 2011 to 2018, returned to The Furnace on Tuesday as the head coach of Crestview. The Cougars made sure his Homecoming was a cause for celebration with a 67-58 win over the Flames.
“It felt kind of weird coming back, I’ve got to admit,” said Kurtz, who is in his second stint with the Cougars after piloting the program from 2008 to 2011. “It felt weird being on the other bench and it felt weird walking into the visitor’s locker room.
“It was good to see some familiar faces and talk to some people who I haven’t talked to in a while.”
That group included Mansfield Chrsitian coach Cary Craner. Mansfield Christian’s first-year coach was the junior varsity coach under Kurtz.
“We had a good talk before the game,” Craner said. “John is a great coach. It was great to see him and his staff.”
As for the game, Crestview parlayed a strong third quarter into its 12th win of the season. The Cougars (12-5) outscored the Flames (7-12) 18-12 in the period and took a 49-41 advantage to the fourth.
MCS made things interesting in the fourth. The Flames opened the quarter with a 7-3 run and cut Crestview’s lead to 52-48 on a Logan Cyphers 3-pointer with 5:27 remaining.
Crestview responded with 10-2 run highlighted by back-to-back conventional three-point plays by Owen Barker and Frank Ardis to make it 62-50 with 2:57 to play.
Mansfield Christian made one final push, going on a quick 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 62-58 with 1:10 remaining.
The Cougars sank 5 of 6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to ice it.
“We need to understand how to handle prosperity when we’re doing well,” Kurtz said. “We don’t know when a good shot is to be taken and when we should pull it back. We took at least three bad shots and missed some free throws, but our kids play really hard so it’s hard to fault them.
“This was a contested game and I just felt like in the end our depth and physicality wore them out.”
Barker led the Cougars with 18 points. Evan Hamilton, who scored his 1,000th career point in an overtime loss to South Central on Jan. 29, added 16.
“This was a real big game for coach,” Hamilton said. “We were able to take care of business.”
Ardis added nine points for the Cougars while Koby Roman and Evan Gibbs each had seven.
“We’ve had good balance all year,” Kurtz said. “We play 10 kids and sometimes as many as 12 and they all have opportunities to score.”
Amaar Davis led the Flames with 27 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter. Ciphers added 19.
I’m very happy with the effort the boys played with tonight. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Craner said. “I’m proud of how hard they played and how they kept coming back.
“I think we’re playing good basketball at the right time of the season.”
