BOX SCORE
COLUMBUS, Ohio- An opportunistic Capital defense that yielded only 22 second half points enabled the Crusader men’s basketball team to come away with a 68-55 win over visiting Heidelberg.
Ahead 44-41 with 12:25 left in the second half, CU (8-7, 3-5 OAC) pulled away from Heidelberg (10-5, 6-2 OAC) with a 13-5 run to take a 57-46 lead with 5:43 remaining. Capital’s ball hawking defense forced seven turnovers and allowed only two field goals during the squad’s decisive run.
“We went into a zone defense in the second half, and I think it slowed them down. (Heidelberg) did a great job getting to the basket in the first half, and we knew that we’d have to force them into some jump shots in the second half, and we were able to do that,” Head Coach Damon Goodwin said. “Whenever you only allow 22 points in the second half, you’re giving yourself a very good chance to win.”
Junior DJ Frazier (Cincinnati, Ohio/Withrow HS) paced CU with 17 points (on 5-of-7 shooting from the field), while classmate Scott Robertson (Berea, Ohio/Berea HS) added 10 points and four rebounds.
Senior Ben McGrath (Cincinnati, Ohio/ Princeton HS) quarterbacked CU’s offense throughout the game, recording a career-high 10 assists while adding nine points and four rebounds.
“Ben’s a smart player. He’s a kid that’s waited his time to play here, and has been a joy to coach this year,” Goodwin said.
Freshman Anthony Bell (Cincinnati, Ohio/Withrow HS) pulled down a team-high five rebounds while scoring nine points off of a Capital bench that outscored the Berg reserves 20-9.
Another key reserve for Capital was sophomore Kelly Winter (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Scioto HS), who scored nine points and tallied a team-high four of the Crusaders’ 12 steals.
“That’s what we expect from Kelly. He’s going to have to play like that every night, and we’ll become a much better basketball team if he does,” Goodwin said.
An offensive duel broke out in the first half, as both teams shot over 50 percent from the field en route to a tied score at 33 at intermission. Frazier led the way for the Crusaders in the first half with 10 points (including six of the team’s last 10 points of the half), while McGrath paced with squad with six assists.
“They were getting most of their points in the lane in the first half, so that zone defense forced them into outside shots,” McGrath said.
The Crusaders’ zone defense paid dividends in the second half, as Capital forced 17 Heidelberg turnovers after halftime, which led to 14 fast break points and 24 points off of Berg miscues for the game.
“We’re one of the better ranked statistical teams in the conference defensively, so we knew that we’d get a lot of transition baskets if we focused on forcing turnovers in the second half,” Frazier said. “Our zone defense kind of baffled them in the second half, and they couldn’t kick the ball to their shooters on either side of the court.”
Freshman Spencer Niekamp (St. Henry, Ohio/St. Henry HS) jumpstarted CU’s first and second half scoring with three-point shots, the latter giving Capital an early 36-33 second half lead.
Winter turned a steal into his seventh point of the game off of a free throw shot to give CU a 42-37 lead with 14:19 remaining in the game.
“A lot of our offense came out of our defensive pressure. We had some good screens on offense, and Ben was able to find me a couple of times in the paint,” Winter said.
McGrath gave Capital their biggest lead of the game at 44-37 with he turned junior Adam Johns’ (St. Marys, Ohio/St. Marys Memorial HS) block into a layup on the ensuing possession.
McGrath found Bell open in the lane for a layup to gave Capital a 48-41 lead with 11:14 left in the game, and a pair of Robertson free throws matched Capital’s biggest lead of the game at 53-45 with 6:23 left in the contest.
“I like getting as many guys involved as possible,” McGrath said. “We have a play designed where we try to get DJ open on an alley-oop pass on the baseline. Plays like that help keep everyone involved and in the game.”
McGrath then finished off a 13-5 scoring run by notching consecutive layups, the second one (after a Robinson steal on defense) giving Capital a 57-46 advantage with 5:43 remaining.
Heidelberg could never cut the Crusader lead to less than seven points, as Frazier scored CU’s next four points from the charity stripe to give the Purple and White a 61-53 lead with 1:35 remaining.
Frazier then forced a steal and found Robertson in the paint, who hit both free throw shots after being fouled to give Capital a 64-53 advantage with 1:16 left.
“We exploited their defense, and used the screen to get a lot of open shots,” Frazier said.
The Crusaders have won their fifth straight home game this season and are now 3-0 against league opponents at the Capital Center.
“It feels good to play at home, where we haven’t played in a long time. It also feels good to beat a team like Heidelberg, who was fighting for first place in the conference tonight," Frazier said.
McGrath added, “We’ve had a lot of close losses this season, so to get a win like this will hopefully give us some momentum going into the second half of league play."
Capital will begin their second half of OAC competition with a trip to Muskingum on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.