Ontario outscored Clear Fork 16-6 in the first quarter and they never looked back as they dismantled the Colts 75-47 on Friday night in the high school boys’ basketball openers for both schools in non-conference play.
The Warriors shot 54% from the field, making 24 of 44 attempts and cashed in on 22 of 25 free throws on the game.
“It was a really solid effort from that standpoint that we did a really nice job of controlling their two key scorers in Chrastina and Robinette in the first half,” Ontario head coach Joe Balogh said.
Kadin Chrastina and Griffen Robinette ended up with 15 points a piece for Cleat Fork, but most of those came in the second half with the Colts already down 38-17 entering the second two periods.
Treyvian Jordan led everybody with 17 markers and Paul Homan, who came off the bench for the Warriors last year when they shared the Northern Ohio League title, added 15 as Ontario put nine players in the scoring column.
“It’s always nice when you win your first game, especially on the road, an especially a place like Clear Fork, which typically for us has been a really tough place to play,” he said.
The Colts ended up making 17 of 39 of their shots, but they only got to the line nine times, making five. Coach Steven Bechtel says the start of the game kind of did them in. “We didn’t get started very well overall in the game. We obviously have a lot of work to do. We are going to be a work in progress I think throughout the year. They are very athletic and apply a lot of pressure and we didn’t handle that pressure very good,” said Bechtel.
The Colts had 20 turnovers.
Ontario was a able to build a 21 point halftime led and Balogh felt a second quarter spurt made them feel like they were in control of the game a little bit. “The second quarter we were able to make a big run and that was really a key to the game. They came back are really battled and that’s a credit to them cutting it to 15 at one time,” said Balogh.
He also thought that their bench was a factor in the win as they were able to put the game away when it appeared that Clear Fork got a little tired in the fourth quarter. “I though our depth kind of wore them out a little bit,” he said.
High Expectations: Winning is something they know how to do at Ontario, they are again expected to contend for the NOL title. Balogh knows they have a bull’s eye painted on their chest. “Our kids expectations are really high. We understand, especially with the kind of season we had last year that teams are going to be excited to play us,” he said.
Up Next: They host Crestview (0-1) in another non-conference game on Saturday night.
Clear Fork has a week off until they open Ohio Cardinal Conference play against Ashland next Friday night. Bechtel says they must execute better, but they have the tools. “I think we are going to get better. We have a great group of kids. They want to get better. They want to work hard. They know what to do, we just have to do it better next time. I think we will improve by next Friday when we play Ashland and hopefully we can put together a full game,” he said.
