St. Paul walks with short hands CrestView, pulls even in the title of Firelands Chase – Richland Source

Olivesburg – CrestView coach John Kurtz was not in the mood for excuses, even if the circumstances were allowed for one.

Senior St. Paul Nolan McCall scored eight of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, and Flyers deleted a 12-point second half deficit at the discount, 57-54 Firelands Conference in CrestView on Wednesday.

Cougars (14-3, 9-1) and Flyers (13-5, 9-1) are tied to the top of the FC ranking, leaving four conference games. The loss also clicked the winning series for CrestView’s Firelands Home Conference. The last loss of a home conference on CrestView came in the 2021-22 season.

The cougars were without regular regular Carter and Cole Bowman, which were removed from illness. The grin hit CrestView particularly strong, as four players were out of practice earlier during the week.

“We were quite short on the bench tonight, but I’m not here to apologize,” Kurtz said. “We had every chance of winning the game. We just didn’t do the job. “

McCall, McCall, was a big reason for this. His 3-indicator with 2:34 remains the lead of CrestView to 52-50.

Justice Thompson pushed the advantage of the cougars to 54-50 with a sort of arrangement before McCall turned a conventional three-point game to make 54-53. In the next possession of St. Paul McCall, Brady Fritz’s collapse and Flyers 55-54 lead with 1:26 to play.

“I have to do my best to bring us back to it to get my team,” McCall said. “I knew my team had a back and if we got the energy, we could stay right with them.”

On CrestView’s next trip on the floor, McCall came out with one of his five blocks. The flyers turned it into arranging Korey Frazee and 57-54 lead with 37 seconds.

CrestView had a chance to tie, but Thompson’s 3-story was out of the brand, and McCol grabbed his 14th and final rebound with 11 seconds. St. Paul pressed the ball quickly into the front court and carried the floor before CrestView was able to go wrong to stop the clock.

“We knew we could hang out with them,” said St. Paul Justin Wilde coach, who filled the head coach Steve Minor – Minor also struggled with the flu. “It’s just incredible to be able to achieve this victory without our coach here.”

Wild did not understand until the beginning of Wednesday afternoon that Minor would not make the trip to CrestView.

“He missed practice (Tuesday), but I didn’t think he would miss the game. He has to be much under the time, ”said Wilde. “We talked all day today and it was around the middle of the day when he called he would stay away because he didn’t want to get sick.”

St. Paul spent much of the evening playing catching up as CrestView built a 17-6 lead lead in the middle of the first quarter. The flyers responded with 9-1 running to close the period and abandoned 18-15 after one. St. Paul took his first lead at night at 20-18 on a pair of Landon Fries’ free throws at the beginning of the second quarter, but left 29-26 on the break.

CrestView opened 43-31 leads on the 3-Tompson 3-tone with 1:16, left in the third, its biggest advantage of the night. The flyers responded with four points to close the quarter and left 43-35, going to the fourth.

“We told them (CrestView) will continue to write,” Wilde said. “We’ll have to be ready to fight this and just stay patient and stay calm.

“These were the players tonight. They strengthened and made great plays. “

Grant Kunle supported McCol with 11 points, including a 3-curse pair in the fourth frame.

Thompson led CrestView with 24 points. Tyson Ringler added a dozen while Carter Gon was chopped with 10.