By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Crane Pirates withstood every run College Heights made at them on Tuesday night and punched their ticket to the round of eight with a 74-59 victory in a Class 2 boys basketball sectional at Carthage.
When junior Aric Spyres made a three pointer a minute into the third quarter, Crane led by 18 points – 41-23.
It quickly dwindled with a 10-0 run by the Cougars that featured two baskets by sophomore Curtis Davenport and three by junior Miller Long.
Three different times College Heights cut the lead to eight points in the third quarter. Every time Crane had an answer.
Senior Isaiah Smith halted the run with 3:22 left in the quarter. A pull-up jumper by senior Brecken Vaught made it 45-34 and a three pointer by Vaught made it 48-37.
It was a nine-point game in the final minute after free throws by Davenport, and after a Crane miss the Cougars had the ball with a chance to pull even closer.
The quarter ended with a College Heights turnover and a layup by Crane’s Smith with 4.8 seconds on the clock and the Pirates led by double digits the rest of the game.
“When you get in the state playoffs everybody’s going to keep battling and keep digging and they did that,” Crane coach Kevin Smith said. “College Heights does a really nice job with what they do and I knew they wouldn’t give in. We were maybe four or six points from really breaking it open but we never got there because they wouldn’t let us. Hats off to them, they never gave in.”
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Crane (19-5) beat the Cougars (17-10) for the second time this season after winning 74-38 in early December.
The Pirates only trailed for nine seconds on Tuesday and utilized several small runs to build a comfortable lead for most of the 32 minutes played.
Crane opened the game with a 9-2 run and went on a 9-0 run into the second quarter to build a 23-10 lead. The Cougars went on an 11-4 run in the second to pull back within six points, but Crane answered with a jumper by junior Sam Woodward and went on another 9-0 run before the half to lead 38-23 at the break.
Smith’s layup in the final seconds of the third quarter was the start of an 11-2 run into the fourth that gave the Pirates a 61-43 lead with 5:46 remaining. The advantage reached 19 points after two free throws by sophomore Aidan Vaught, and Crane led 71-51 after senior Seth Steele made one.
“We do a game of runs,” Smith said. “How we press, and also our transition offense, next thing you know we went on an 8-0 run, 6-0 run, 10-0 run. We always play for those small spurts, those small runs. We want to string those along as many times as possible.”
College Heights coach Eric Johnson said Crane’s answers to his team’s runs was the mark of a good team.
“They’re liable to go a long ways,” he said. “It gets tougher as you move on. Still though, from when we played them in December and we played them now it was a whole different game. We may have had 20 turnovers instead of the 34 we had back then. A team like that, you make a turnover they’re going to make you pay for it too. They probably scored a lot of points on our turnovers.”
The Cougars turned it over seven times in the first quarter and five times in the second before tightening up in the second half.
“If we eliminated our turnovers, that’s going to put us right there even because they couldn’t stop us inside,” Johnson said.
“I think we had one bucket outside the lane,” he said. “Miller may have hit one early. The rest of our points were in the paint.”
Smith said his team’s deep lineup stood out and he thought the Cougars tired as the game went on. Nine different Pirates scored points in the game.
“What really stood out is I thought we made some nice plays around the basket,” he said. “Isaiah Smith made some nice plays to finish with some guys trying to score. Taylor Calzaretta and Seth Steele and Aidan Vaught, they caught some nice passes from him. They made the plays. I thought that really stood out, especially in our transition offense.”
Brecken Vaught scored a game-high 27 points and Calzaretta added 14. Aidan Vaught added nine.
Long led College Heights with 21 points – he scored 10 in the third quarter. Davenport scored 13, including eight in the third.
Crane now returns to the quarterfinals for the first time since finishing second in the state in 2017. The Pirates will face Norwood (22-5) at 6 p.m. Friday.
“These kids at Crane want to etch their spot in the legacy of doing something,” Smith said. “Everybody thought after last year that we were down. We lost some great players in Tyler Campbell, two time all-state; Jacob Woodward, Wes Branstetter. Great players. Not much was counted on from this group. Them coming through and having an opportunity to be in the elite eight and state quarterfinals is great for them because a lot of schools said we lost too much talent, which we did, but we’ve reloaded and we just do what we do.”
