The laurel wreath goes to Creath.
As in David Creath, the freshman who turned into an unlikely hero for Grandview’s boys basketball team, leading the Eagles past Crystal City 54-51 in overtime Friday.
With the scored tied at 48-48, the host Hornets got possession to start the 4-minute overtime period. Creath quickly swiped the ball from Crystal freshman Donovan Tullock near midcourt and raced down for an easy layup.
The next time Grandview had possession, Creath scored again on a putback after a desperate rebounding scrum under the hoop. The four-point lead at 52-48 proved to be just enough, after Crystal’s Chris Eisenbeis tossed in a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left. Eagle senior Anthony Dolde sealed the win by sinking two free throws with 12.1 seconds left.
Creath, who also helped lead Grandview to victory in the junior varsity game earlier, finished with 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. That earned him two thumbs up from Grandview head coach Chris Miller.
“(Creath) comes in there like a bowling ball sometimes, but I love his enthusiasm and his energy,” Miller said. “It would be great if he was 6-5 instead of about 5-10. David’s a great kid. Defensively he makes things happen; the team feeds off of him.”
Grandview junior Colton McAnally led all scorers with 15 points and hauled down eight rebounds while Bryan Martinez, also a junior, added 11 points and senior Dru Stranz grabbed 12 rebounds in the Eagles’ balanced effort. The team improved to 5-11 overall and 1-1 in the Jefferson County Activities Association (small schools) while Crystal suffered its 12th loss in a row and dropped to 3-14, including an 0-3 conference mark.
The game came down to free throws. Grandview made only 10-of-24 from the line, but that was enough to fend off the Hornets, who missed four-of-four in the last 45 seconds.
“If we make free throws at the end of the game, we’re not talking about any of the other mistakes,” Crystal City head coach Sean Breeze said. “Unfortunately this is about the fourth game where that’s really plagued us, where we were ahead and missed critical free throws at the end.
“By missing them, it turns a two-point deficit into a four- or five-point deficit and now everything you want to do changes. It alters every play you want to call.”
Crystal’s top scorers were junior Connor Lowe with 11 points and freshman Hunter Bassin with 10. The Hornets were playing without their leading scorer and rebounder, 6-6 senior center Brady DeGeare, who sprained his right ankle two days earlier and was on crutches on the Hornet bench. That effectively balanced the scales with Grandview, which lost its top gun, senior guard Koby Klaus, in December with re-torn knee ligaments. While Klaus’ prep career is over, DeGeare could return sometime next month, Breeze noted.
Crystal led 26-23 at halftime and 40-33 after three quarters but couldn’t answer the Eagles’ late charge.
“Overtimes are crazy,” Breeze said. “You need some experience (on the floor) and right there we were hurting, with two freshmen and a sophomore out there. The kids played so hard and you can’t question their effort.
“Tonight, fundamentally, from the fourth quarter on, Grandview was just better than we were.”
Miller noted that his younger players are taking advantage of their opportunity for playing time, especially with Klaus out of action.
“We made just enough free throws when we had to (tonight),” he said. “That’s a good sign of resiliency, especially (with) playing some younger guys. So hopefully we can build off that.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys who’ve been trying to figure it out all year. We’ve been running some younger guys in because you want to see if there’s something you can change; give some other guys a chance to prove themselves.
“Seeing some of those younger kids play a lot of JV time, (then) come in (on varsity) and do some good things for us, was really good.”