Crestview’s Cali Gregory puts up a shot during Thursday night’s game at Allen East.
Don Speck | The Lima News
HARROD — Crestview’s Cali Gregory was a one-woman wrecking crew Thursday night against Allen East.
The standout junior poured in a team-high 30 points to help the Knights to a 55-28 victory in a Northwest Conference clash.
With the win, Crestview improves to 9-3 on the season and improves to 4-1 in the NWC. Allen East slips to 10-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play.
“Cali came out and had a nice start for us,” Crestview head coach Mark Gregory said. “But she had some really nice help from Ellie (Kline). The goal tonight was to keep it under 12 turnovers and we did that tonight. I am proud of our girls for taking care of the basketball and being strong. Allen East is so good at deflections and steals and that is how they make their hay and we didn’t let them do that tonight.”
Allen East head coach Aaron Montgomery said, “They have a lot of length and are very athletic and when they sit in that zone it makes it so much longer. We tried to utilize the gaps but we didn’t hit a lot of shots. We tried to penetrate but we just couldn’t get the ball to fall.”
Gregory’s big offensive night began with her scoring Crestview’s first 12 points of the game to help the Knights open up 12 12-8 advantage after the first eight minutes.
In the second quarter is when the Knights made their move when the Knights’ defense, also a major factor in the victory, held Allen East to three points in the second quarter while Crestview scored 17 and by halftime, Crestview led 29-12 and Gregory had 18 total points.
Gregory, who also snared six rebounds. finished with 30 despite not playing the bulk of the fourth quarter.
Also making an impact on the offensive end was Ellie Kline who chipped in 14 points. Senior Laci McCoy finished with 10 rebounds.
In the pivotal second stanza, Allen East did not hit its first field goal until 45 seconds left in the first half.
Mustang Savana Brooks was the lone Allen Est player to eclipse the double digit barrier with 10 points.
“They (Allen East) have some girls that can shoot it and they have girls that can handle it and I just thought we did such a good job of being where were supposed to be and just finishing plays off,” Gregory said. “I was just proud of our team’s effort. Our big thing here is toughness and togetherness and it took both of those tonight to get the win.
“Gregory added that the Knights through up an assortment of different defensive looks that kept the Mustangs off balance offensively all night.
The Knights pretty much sealed the deal at the onset of the third quarter when they opened the second half by going on a 10-run to open up the team’s biggest lead at 39-13 and then cruised the rest of the way.
As the numbers point out, the Knights’ defense shut down the Mustang offense which came into the game averaging 55 points a contest and Crestview held Allen East to its lowest offensive output of the year. The previous low was 33 points.
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Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
