Crestview girls basketball wraps up unbeaten Firelands Conference season with a dominating win over Mapleton

NANKIN – Goal accomplished.

The Crestview girls basketball team rolled into Mapleton High School on Wednesday night and finished off an undefeated Firelands Conference season with a dominating 44-21 victory over the Mounties.

With their 17th consecutive win this season, the Cougars (17-3, 14-0) now have had two 14-0 FC finishes in the last three years, three straight conference titles and are 41-1 in league games over that span.

“It was a goal we set pretty early in the season,” Crestview coach Amy Bays said ofachieving an unbeaten league title. “We talked about we wanted to finish something that we started. This was the icing on the cake today.”

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Despite 13 first-quarter turnovers, Mapleton (15-7, 10-4) stayed right with the Cougars, trailing just 11-10 after eight minutes. Four different Mounties contributed to the scoring.

But from there, Crestview’s suffocating defense — both full-court pressure and half-court on-the-ball — limited Mapleton to just 11 more points the rest of the way.

“It was very encouraging to be there, and we expected to be there,” Mapleton coach Daryl Young said about the close first quarter. “We didn’t expect what the end result was.”

Mapleton kept it close into the second quarter, trailing just 15-13 with two minutes left in the first half. But a 3-pointer by Anna McFarland gave the Cougars an 18-13 lead at the break and opened the offensive floodgates.

Baskets by Skylar Ramsey and Emma Aumend to open the third quarter gave the Cougars an 8-0 surge that Mapleton’s Sara Hickey ended with a 3-pointer.

But Crestview used a 14-0 run stretching from the third quarter and into the fourth to build a 37-16 advantage.

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“That’s something that we preach every single game that we come into,” Bays said about the push to start the second half. “You’ve got to have strong starts. That can be a deal breaker sometimes with other teams and it can be defeating a little bit.”

Hickey connected on her third 3-pointer of the game and added a driving basket after that to make it 37-21 in the fourth quarter. But that was the end of the scoring for Mapleton as Crestview finished the game with seven straight points at the free-throw line.

With the Cougars in a spread offense, Frankie Dinsmore made Crestview’s only shot from the floor in the fourth quarter. The Cougars were a coolly efficient 6 of 9 from the field in the second half and closed out the Mounties with a 9-of-12 performance at the free-throw line in the final quarter.

“At one point, all five of those girls (on the floor for most of the fourth quarter) have been a point guard in our program,” Bays said. “We have the skill set that we can use to our advantage.

“We like to do that as much as we can just to control the game and eliminate some of the mistakes that we have rushing too much. … We pushed too much the first half, in my opinion.”

After the first quarter, Mapleton’s offense was all Hickey as the Mounties were just 4 of 28 (14%) from the field and 1 of 7 (14%) from the free-throw line in the final three quarters. Hickey finished with 14 points, including all 11 Mapleton scores after the first quarter.

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“We had our opportunities,” Young said. “The first half was a tale of us missing the shots when we executed the offense, and then we had some opportunities with our free throws that we didn’t make the most of.”

Crestview’s Mary Leeper scored a game-high 17 points and made three 3-pointers, including one from just beyond half-court to close out the third quarter.

She then converted 6 of 8 attempts at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

Dinsmore and Ramsey added six points each, while Aumend and Georgia McFarland each contributed five.

Crestview will finish the regular season Saturday against Lucas. Mapleton awaits the beginning of sectional tournament play next week.

“We’ve talked more than once about never letting one loss become two, and we haven’t yet this season,” Young said. “We’re fully intending taking care of Wellington when they come in here next week.”

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Crestview caps unbeaten FC season with a win over Mapleton