Eagles’ outside shooting foils Royals’ game plan – Daily Chief-Union

By LONNIE McMILLAN

Sports editor

NORTH ROBINSON — The Northern 10 Athletic Conference’s
second-leading scorer and top rebounder commands a lot of attention, and that
gives opportunities for other players to step up.

Wynford tried to take away Robin Ehmann, and Colonel
Crawford knocked down nine 3-pointers as a result while running away with a
57-33 victory in a battle of N10 girls basketball co-leaders Saturday at Mac
Morrison Gymnasium.

The Eagles (11-2, 7-1 N10) made four shots from deep in the
first quarter to build a 20-8 lead and added four more in the third quarter to
put the game out of reach with a 48-24 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“You have to pick your poison, and for us, the leading
scorers and rebounders, we wanted to focus on that,” Wynford coach Amy
Taylor-Sheldon said. “They hit some big 3s early. We tried not to get
discouraged. We hung in there. That was good. Then tried to change the tempo a
little bit, didn’t get much out of that. Their one through seven stepped up,
hit some big shots, made some big defensive plays.”

Saylor Holt opened the game with a 3-pointer, and Lexi Duré
followed with one of her own. Another bucket by Duré made it 8-0 in the first
three minutes.

It was a foreshadowing of what was to come. Reese Redmen hit
a 3-pointer that made it 15-4, and after four straight points by Caroline
Sheldon, Claire Smith connected from long range with a friendly bounce to put
the Eagles up a dozen.

“You’ve got to give Robin Ehmann a lot of credit,” Colonel
Crawford coach Zac Bauer said. “Robin’s so magnetic offensively that when she
is posting, there’s so much attention drawn to her that maybe they hold the
midline a little bit longer than usual. That allows her to catch a post feed,
and she was so unselfish in skipping the ball and finding girls that make 3s.”

Sheldon kept the Royals (11-3, 6-2 N10) within striking
distance for a while, scoring all eight of their first-quarter points. She had
14 points in the first half but finished with only 16 in the game.

Back-to-back deep Sheldon 3-pointers got Wynford to within
24-18, and it trailed 28-20 at halftime.

But like in the first quarter, Colonel Crawford’s shooting
was too much in the third. It made four straight, one each by Lily Alberty and
Redman and then two by Duré. That flurry of shot-making extended an already
14-point advantage to 24 points.

“They made nine 3s, and they haven’t shot necessarily like
that consistently all year,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “That was tough, so we tried
to make some adjustments to make them go a little bit faster. We just weren’t
very consistent, but we had a great effort. Our kids played hard. Coach Bauer
had a great game plan, and their kids stepped up.”

Emmi Powers led Colonel Crawford with 13 points, seven
rebounds and six assists, while Duré had 12 points and three steals. Ehmann had
nine points and 10 rebounds.

While the Eagles had players step up against the focus of
the Royals defense, the Royals did not. No Wynford players besides Sheldon
scored more than six points. With Sheldon shut down in the second half, the
Royals scored just 13 points in the final two quarters.

“In the first half, we left a little too early,” Bauer said.
:She’s good enough that she seizes that opportunity and she can make those
shots in half a second. We weren’t really ready for the first half. I thought
we were better in the second half at staying longer.”

Colonel Crawford went 18 of 41(43.9%) on field goals,
including 9 of 23 (39.1%) on 3-pointers, while Wynford was 11 of 37 (29.7%) on
all shots and 3 of 16 (18.8%) from long range.

The Eagles had a 28-25 rebounding advantage and forced more
turnovers, 16-9.

“We always have a physical game with Crawford, and part of
when you play Crawford is managing the physicality of it, and sometimes that
got the best of us,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “We played super hard, just missed
some shots. There’s still a lot of season to try to hang in there, execute as
best as we can, defend as best as we can and get ready for the next game.”

Colonel Crawford won the junior varsity game 37-31.

Wynford hosts Seneca East at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

WYNFORD (11-3, 6-2 N10): C. Sheldon 5-4-16, Engler 2-2-6,
Liming 1-1-3, Filliater 1-0-3, Young 1-0-2, Ridge 1-0-2, P. Sheldon 0-1-1.
Totals 11-37 8-15 33.

COLONEL CRAWFORD (11-2, 7-1 N10): Powers 3-7-13, Duré
4-1-12, R. Ehmann 3-3-9, Redman 3-0-8, C. Smith 2-0-6, Holt 2-0-5, Alberty
1-0-3, Plesac 0-1-1. Totals 18-42 12-18 57.

3-point goals: Duré 3, C. Sheldon 2, C. Smith 2, Redman 2,
Filliater, Holt, Alberty.

Score by quarters

Wynford             8             12          4             9             —
33

Colonel Crawford        20          8             20          9             —
57

Junior varsity: Colonel Crawford won 37-31.