It’s never a good sign when a basketball team has to take its first timeout four minutes into a game.
And it’s even more ominous when its first field goal doesn’t arrive until the second quarter after 11 straight misses.
Crestview started its 55-40 girls basketball win over Lima Central Catholic on Thursday night about as well as it possibly could on its way to jumping out to an 18-1 lead after one quarter.
LCC, which battled the Knights on almost even terms on the scoreboard later in the game, never recovered from the first eight minutes, though.
Crestview led 20-1 when Madison Stolly hit LCC’s first field goal of the night forty seconds into the second quarter.
The Thunderbirds were down 32-12 at halftime before outscoring Crestview by five points in the final two quarters.
Emily Bauer (17 points, 7 rebounds) and Paige Motycka (11 points, 7 rebounds) led Crestview to its eighth win in 11 games. LCC (4-12) was led by Stolly, with 23 points, 16 of them in the second half.
“The first quarter we moved the ball pretty well, shot the ball pretty well. I think we moved the ball well for the whole game. We didn’t shoot as well the whole game. I think we took some forced shots in the fourth quarter. But I thought for the most part we got about any shot we wanted,” Crestview coach Greg Rickard said.
“I kept telling the girls, ‘This isn’t over. These guys can score points in bunches and they’re on their home floor.’ I was just making sure we didn’t have a lapse on the defensive end,” he said.
Crestview’s defense focused on Stolly early and she was 2 of 10 shooting the ball in the first half, but she finished strong, hitting 6 of her final 11 shots in the second half. Claire Zaleski and Paige Motycka drew the defensive assignment on Stolly and there was help defense when she got inside.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on her and made her take some forced shots. She scored some points but it was probably the hardest she had to work for them,” Rickard said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of knowing where she was the whole time.”
Crestview shot 42 percent on field goals and LCC hit 30 percent of its attempts (14 of 46). Crestview had a 24-23 rebounding edge and turnovers were not a big factor for either team, with LCC turning it over 11 times and Crestview finishing with seven turnovers.
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