The Ontario Warriors visited the Crestview Cougars on Saturday night in boy’s basketball action. They would walk out feeling a little underachieved. Last season the Warriors handled the Cougars fairly easily and wound up with a huge blow out. This season the Cougars would not let that happen on their home floor.
“If you look at their team from last week to this week, they showed a lot of improvement’ said Ontario Coach Joe Balogh about his opponent’s never-give-up attitude.
Ontario jumped out to a 6 point lead early in the first quarter, but Crestview would claw back and only trail by 5 at the end of the first frame.
Then, Ontario’s full court pressure defense seemed to wear down the Cougars in the second quarter, as they were only able to post five total points. The Warriors were all over the court, deflecting passes and setting traps to try to create turnovers and easy baskets on offense. That is exactly what they did in the second quarter, as they would take a 31-18 advantage into the locker room.
Ontario rode senior sharpshooter Brandon Wagner in the first half as he took advantage of the Cretview 2-3 zone defense andconnect on four three-point baskets to post 12 of his 13 points. It looked as if the Warriors were headed for another blow out victory.
The start of the second half look like more of the same for the Warriors. They would out score the Cougars 16-8 in the third frame to give them a comfortable 47-26 lead heading into the final quarter. But, Crestview still had some fight left and would use tough play from Junior forward Sawyer Radcliffe who would end up posting a double-double for the Cougars with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
He would rebound and shoot his team back to with in 12 points by collecting 6 rebounds and 7 points in the fourth quarter alone. But, time was in short supply and the clock would run out on the Crestview comeback attempt. The final buzzer had Ontario winning by a score of 56-44.
“We lost by 12 and people are wondering why we are excited. I think last year they might of lost to Ontario by 50,” first year Crestview Coach Bryan Hall said. “Our game plan coming in was to sit in a zone, we knew they could shoot but we just wanted to get out there and get after it. We have two conference games coming up and I told our guys I do not care what the score is as long as we get better as a team. I am pumped about the way we played tonight.”
The Cougars will play Firelands Conference foes New London and Mapleton next weekend. “If we play like this and just go out there and compete, I think we can compete with anyone one in the league, we play like we did tonight we could be at the top” Hall said of his expectations in the Firelands Conference.
The Cougars were led by Radcliffe’s 14 point 12 rebound effort. Senior guard Chandler Durbin chipped in with 13 points of his own.
The Ontario Warriors move to 4-0 on the young season and Coach Balogh has high hopes for the season.
“You hope that a 4-0 start means that you have a lot of positive energy, but the road is not going to be very easy. As I told the kids at the beginning of the season, you jump on the train and it starts slow but it will start to roll and you need to stay on board and make sure everyone is doing the right things,” said Balogh.
The Warriors will take on Wooster on Tuesday night.
The Warriors were led by senior forward Cameron Mack’s 16 point four rebound effort. Wagner added 13 points while senior Tyler Boatwright chipped in 10 points and six assists. Senior forward Josh Plieninger posted a double-double effort with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Ontario took home the victory in the Junior Varsity game with Freshman JaQuan Jackson leading the way with 16 points. Junior Jobe Gray scored 14 points for the Cougars.
“As I told the kids at the beginning of the season, you jump on the train and it starts slow but it will start to roll and you need to stay on board and make sure everyone is doing the right things,” said Coach Balogh.
