Adam Haines
Following Saturday night’s game against River City, some of the Columbus Christian boys basketball players returned to the court to work on their free throws.
Free-throw shooting was the difference in the Crusaders’ 61-52 loss. The Jaguars went 14 for 22 from the line, while Columbus Christian was just 9 for 28.
“That’s what we talked about in the locker room,” Columbus Christian coach Roth said. “We were within two with maybe three minutes left, and we were shooting the bonus, I told them in the timeouts, I said, ‘We have to get the ball inside and try to score from inside because we have to eat into the lead with the clock stopped and hitting foul shots, and we can’t convert from the foul line and then they hit a couple open 3s.”
River City led by as many as 12 in both the second and third quarters and still led 43-34 going to the fourth. The Crusaders (1-3) scored the first six points of the final period to get within three, then closed to 45-43 on a 3-pointer by Adam Haines with 3:19 remaining.
The Jaguars then ran off nine in a row to push the margin back to 54-43 with 1:27 left. Columbus Chrsitian scored the next seven to come within 54-50 with 38 seconds remaining, but River City went 7 for 8 from the line in the final 35 seconds to put it away.
Haines led the Crusaders with 14 points. Krew Flickinger and Eli Wright each scored nine points, and Ben Carter added seven points and 11 rebounds.
Columbus Christian played without leading scorer Elijah Fields, who was on a college visit. Another starter, Heath Harrison, sprained an ankle midway through the game and did not return.
“We have new guys (Wright and Carter) that are trying to fit in, and we’re getting there,” Roth said. “We changed the lineup tonight, playing three guards with Krew, Adam and Hunter (Goddard). We thought that was doing pretty good in the first half. We are pretty young because we’re playing a lot of sophomores with the senior newcomers, but we’ll get there.”
River City 61, Columbus Christian 52
River City;13;19;11;18;—;61
Columbus Christian;15;6;13;18;—;52
River City: Andrew Wilson 3 4-6 12, Brycen Dean 4 3-4 12, Josiah Conrades 0 0-0 0, Joseph Johnson 4 1-5 9, Zeke Reschar 2 0-0 5, Kelvin Loyd 2 0-0 4, Brady Pontrich 4 3-4 13, Zeb Stevens 1 3-3 6. Totals: 20 14-22 61.
Columbus Christian: Adam Haines 6 0-0 14, Krew Flickinger 2 4-4 9, Ayden Vanderbur 0 0-0 0, Zach Jenner 0 0-0 0, Ben Carter 3 1-7 7, Hunter Goddardd 2 2-6 6, Canon Carr 1 0-5 2, Heath Harrison 1 1-2 3, Eli Wright 4 1-4 9, Myles Romero 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 9-28 52.
3-point goals: River City 7 (Wilson 2, Pontrich 2, Dean, Reschar, Stevens). Columbus Christian 3 (Haines 2, Flickinger).
