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Crestview Rebels sweep East Pal Bulldogs
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Crestview’s Robert Logan, left, wrestles the ball away from East Palestine’s Zakary Brockman during the second period of their game Tuesday in Crestview.
By Tom Williams
NEW WATERFORD
After scoring 16 points and making 17 rebounds and six blocks in a 53-37 romp over East Palestine, Crestview senior C.J. Collins declined to say whether it was his best performance of the high school basketball season.
Pressed to grade his performance, Collins rejected the notion he deserved an A.
“I need to settle down,” Collins said. “In the fourth quarter, I fouled out — I got a little too excited. I think I need to take smarter shots and you can always be a better leader.”
It’s hard to imagine Collins and senior Tom Oliver performing much better, especially in the second half when the Rebels took charge.
Oliver scored 18 points and made four rebounds and a block as the Rebels (10-4, 6-3 Inter Tri-County League Tier One) stayed two games behind league leader Springfield in what still is a five-team race for the crown.
The loss puts the Bulldogs (6-5, 5-3) two games behind Springfield, which has a one-game edge over South Range.
The Rebels and Bulldogs both have games remaining against Springfield and South Range. Lisbon also has three league losses.
“We were really hungry for the win,” Oliver said after the Rebels swept the Bulldogs for the first time in a long while. “It’s a good achievement for Crestview.”
After leading 11-6 after eight minutes, the Rebels built the lead up to eight points at halftime when Oliver’s basket put them ahead, 23-15.
Then the Rebels dominated the third quarter, posting an 18-0 run for a 43-18 edge to seize control. Oliver scored eight points during that stretch while Nate Climo contributed six points. Robert Logan came off the Crestview bench to score 10 points.
“We just continued to defend pretty well,” Crestview coach Herman Miller said of the streak and of limiting east Palestine to six points in each of the first and third quarters. “Our execution offensively was really good in that [third] quarter. I can’t be unhappy about anything we did tonight.”
East Palestine coach Tom Bingham credited Collins and Oliver.
“They are a nice one-two combination,” Bingham said. “They are very hard to stop — we didn’t have answer for them.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight and they outplayed us,” Bingham said.
Austen Reiger led the Bulldogs with 10 points. Travis Cope scored eight and the Rebels limited Jake DiCello to four.
“They were concentrating on taking him out of the game,” Bingham said. “We tried some different things to get him going and it didn’t work.”
Collins couldn’t recall the last time someone swept the Bulldogs.
“It’s the first time in a long time it’s happened,” Collins said. “East Palestine’s program has been insane the past couple of years and its nice to finally get them both times.”
Collins said the Rebels have learned from their three league losses as they prepare for rematches.
“We were satisfied with where we were at,” Collins said. “After we dropped those three to Springfield, South Range and Lisbon, Coach sat us down and told us we need to step it up.
“We’ve been putting ourselves in a good position to win and I think that’s the difference the past couple of weeks.”