Cardinals hang on to beat Bulldogs

Crofton boys basketball becomes nearly unstoppable when it’s hitting 3-pointers. So when the downpour let up and Southern roared back like a scorching sun after rain, sophomore Will Frost felt pretty thankful that the 22-point lead his team had once existed.

The Cardinals ripped 11 3-pointers on Friday to get there and, without it, Crofton might not have been able to hold the Bulldogs back, which it did in a 61-56 win. And, coach Tom Shafer considered with a smile, they might not have made history.

Other Cardinals sports have state championship banners hanging from the gym walls already, but it’s been a rocky road for boys basketball. There’s been improvement. Under Shafer, Crofton recorded six regular season wins for the first time in the program’s history. Friday’s triumph also marks the first time the Cardinals (6-16) have bested Southern.

“There are four games where we blew fourth quarter leads and that’s really helped us now,” Shafer said. “This time, the boys weren’t turning the ball over as much. The guys are working hard and they don’t quit. Our main goal is to be in as many games in the fourth quarter as possible, and they’ve put themselves in that position a lot of times this year.”

Every time Southern drove to the net in the first quarter, it was as if the Bulldogs were walking into a tall cornfield and only Brian Griffin could see through it.

He’d pop his head up, arc some 3-pointers or layups, which was enough to keep Southern out of danger in the first quarter.

But otherwise, the Bulldogs struggled shooting and rebounding.

Ideally, a Griffin triple in the last few seconds of the quarter could’ve put Southern on an OK foot for the next frame, but no. The Cardinals streamed to the other end and with nearly nothing on the clock, Frost hit a 3-pointer for a 20-10 lead.

“I thought our 2-2-1 press [defense] really took a lot of the time off and from there, we kinda fell back into man,” Shafer said. “We gave them two looks.”

The Cardinals just operated like zen music played in their ears. The Bulldogs pressured two bodies to each ball-handler but it didn’t stop Dylan Shafter or Miles Denton from hitting 3-pointers.

“We really just trust each other to shoot the 3,” Frost said. “We drive, we just kick it out.”

Griffin could strip Cardinals’ hands clean and fast break for all the points he wanted but save for a single triple from Davin Kess, his island couldn’t outpace

Crofton’s army.

“We couldn’t score,” Southern coach Will Maynard said, “so we didn’t have energy defensively. They were just hitting 3s. Just hitting 3s”

Frost knew to have the final possession of the half would be a chance to toss an extra kick Southern’s way before it shuffled off to mull over its lackluster first half. The Crofton sophomore cast his pre-buzzer 3-pointer like a fisher’s line. The smile couldn’t help but split his face as Frost absorbed the 41-22 lead and then turned to embrace his team with three fingers up.

By third quarter’s start, that would improve to a 22-point cavern.

But Crofton still couldn’t cage Griffin.

But now, it wasn’t just Griffin. Ethan Sheffey moved like he specifically wanted to spite Frost, not only silencing the sophomore completely in the third quarter with help from Daevon Crampton, but reeling off his first 10 points.

Crofton continued to angle towards Griffin, but it left Sheffey wide open to tally the last basket of a Southern-centric third quarter, 54-43.

“They hit us in the face,” Frost said. “We just had to come back, take the punch and keep going.”

The plan to single out Griffin didn’t fare too well either. Tthe point guard, who endep up with 30 points, opened the fourth with a 3-pointer.

“We didn’t do a great job of stopping him,” Shafer said.

The Bulldogs made 3-pointer shooting a chore. They pressed Frost too high to move the ball down. Flushed from the perimeter and the paint, the Cardinals took desperate shots they didn’t want and that didn’t land.

“In the first half, it was five passes and a 3-pointer.

In the second half, it was 20 dribbles, pass, then a bad shot,” Shafer said. “That was the whole difference.”

But, Maynard said, you just can’t give a team a 19-point cushion at halftime and expect things to work out. Southern got as close as four points at 60-56.

“All year, we’ve been hurt. We get someone back, they’re hurt again,” Maynard said. “We got two games left, but we’re focusing on getting ready for playoffs.”

Crofton — 2021137— 61

Southern — 10132113— 56

CR: Frost 18, Winston 10, Logan 10, Shafer 9, Denton 6, Brown 5, Chin 3

SO: Griffin 30, Sheffey 12, Kess 8, Kidd 4, Crandell 2