Crane head coach Craig Campbell summed up his team’s game against the visiting Panthers from Marion C. Early High School in one word: “Physical.” The exhausted coach and his team were able to come away with the 68-54 victory, their thirteenth win of the season.
The pace of the game slowed to a crawl in the fourth quarter as the fouls committed by both teams piled up. There were 68 free throws total in the game, 34 of them occurring in the fourth quarter.
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The first quarter was played pretty even and fast, with only one foul called in the period. With a minute remaining in the frame, MCE built up a five point lead on back-to-back baskets by Connor Wilkins. Crane made up four point on that deficit on consecutive baskets of the own by Colton Elder. The Panthers held on to a one point lead going into the second quarter, 16-15.
Crane (13-4) committed seven turnovers during the first quarter, but turned the tables on MCE in the second. They used full court pressure and man-to-man defense to force the Panthers into making seven turnovers of their own. MCE took another hit in the second period, losing senior Brandon Bell to a back injury that kept him off the court until halfway through the third quarter. Bell ended up with 11 points.
With the score tied at 24—and Bell out of the game—Crane went on a 14-3 run to end the first half. Tanner Gold did much of the scoring during that stretch as he tallied nine points in the final four minutes of the second quarter. Gold finished with 27 points and eight rebounds.
“He (Gold) knows the game of basketball really well,” said Coach Campbell. “He’s good at picking his spots to really go. Second quarter he realized he could pick off some of those passes and he got some steals and got some buckets.”
The Pirates were also strong in the rebounding category with a 29-15 advantage over the Panthers. It was a statistic both coaches noted as important. “It was good to see a couple of our big guys get some of the rebounds,” said Coach Campbell. “Tonight Deven White had some big rebounds and some big shots. Hopefully he can build on that.” White scored fourteen points and had seven rebounds; Robby Williams also grabbed seven boards for Crane.
The Panthers (15-6) kept the game close for most of the second half and got the score as close as nine with five minutes left in the game on a three point basket from Jordan Criss, but could get no closer. Criss scored 16 points to lead MCE.
“There were a lot of calls, a lot of whistles blown, but my kids battled,” said Panthers head coach Brett Rippee. “Crane is an outstanding ball club and they’re in our district. We wanted to come down here and let everybody know that we’re a contender and I think we had a good showing.”
Coach Williams was also proud of his team’s effort and the fact that they were able to come out with a win in such a physical contest. “We’ve played a couple games like this, but this is the first time we’ve come out on top,” said Campbell.
Crane will travel to Sparta on Tuesday, February 2 and Marion C. Early will host a strong Conway team that same night. The Panthers are undefeated at home this season.
Crane: 15, 23, 9, 21—68
MCE: 16, 11, 11, 16—54
Crane: Branstetter, 4; Cook, 2; Elder, 7; Gold, 27; Hayes, 7; Vaught, 2; White, 14; Williams, 3
MCE: Bell, 11; Criss, 16; Ladino, 2; Lomas, 2; McMillen, 1; Turner, 5; C Wilkins, 4; H Wilkins, 9
