Lima Central Catholic’s Billy Bourk (right) and Crestview’s Carson Hunter fight for the ball during Friday night’s game at LCC.
Jackelyn Johnson | The Lima News
Crestview came out like a sprinter in the 400-meter dash. Lima Central Catholic’s start was more like that of a distance runner.
And while the Thunderbirds made up a lot of ground, they never caught up with the Knights, who raised their record to 16-1 with a 58-40 boys basketball win at LCC on Friday night.
Wren Sheets, a 6-6 sophomore, led No. 4-ranked Crestview with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Nate Lichtle had 14 points and Mitch Temple scored 12 points.
Matthew Quatman’s 17 points, including three 3-pointers, led LCC (5-10) and Carson Parker scored 12 points.
Crestview led by as many as 26 points early in the third quarter before LCC put together a comeback which eventually carved 18 points off that lead at its peak.
Crestview took the lead in the opening minute of the game on its way to a 33-14 halftime lead.
The Knights shot 59 percent in the first half (13 of 22) and were even hotter than that early in the game when they hit 11 of their first 14 shots.
Nate Lichtle, who set a Crestview boys basketball record with 10 3-pointers in a 70-37 win over Hicksville last week, connected on three of them in the game’s first 4:11. His 10 3-pointers broke the Crestview record of nine 3-pointers in a game, set by his coach Doug Etzler.
Meanwhile, LCC shot 23 percent from the field (5 of 23) in the first two quarters.
Crestview also had a huge 17-5 edge in rebounds in the opening half. About the only negative number on the Knights’ stat sheet in the first half was having eight turnovers.
The beginning of the second half looked like more of the same when Crestview hit 4 of its first 6 shots and took its biggest lead of the game, 26 points, at 42-16. But LCC fought back and cut that lead in half to be behind by only 13 points, 45-32, after three quarters and got to within eight points, at 45-37, with 5:42 to play.
“We shot it really well, got some good shots and we got some second shots. And you hold them to 14 points at half, that’s pretty good,” Crestview coach Doug Etzler said.
“The third quarter I thought we got off to a good start but then we started taking some tougher shots, not getting all the way to the rim and took some quicker shots,” he said.
LCC coach Frank Kill said, “Getting down 26 we could have easily bagged it in but we fought, clawed and scratched to cut it to eight and could have cut it to five. But could have’s, would have’s and should have’s don’t cut it.
“We’re there but we’re not there in terms of trusting the process,” he said. “When you’re playing a state-ranked team like Crestview you can’t have flaws and mistakes because they’re going to capitalize on them. And that’s what they did.”
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Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
