By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The Crestwood boys basketball team has all the chemistry a championship-level team would want, but every team reaches a point during the preseason when the monotony of training against each other starts to settle in.

Crestwood guard Dekota Johnson soars in for a third-quarter transition layup.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

For the Red Devils, prior to Friday’s opener at Mogadore, they had been 12 straight days since it had played against anyone other than themselves.

They were finally ready to see someone else.

By the end of the first quarter, the Wildcats were ready to see just about anyone else.

The Red Devils had everything clicking in the first quarter.

A swarming defense.

An offense scoring in transition, from 3-point range and in halfcourt sets.

It was like an avalanche that the Wildcats could not stop.

The score after the first 8 minutes of action: Crestwood 19, Mogadore 0.

In the first quarter, the Cats had more turnovers (8) than field-goal attempts (6).

The Devils duplicated the effort through the next three quarters and captured a commanding 64-31 non-league victory.

“I don’t think you could script the start of a game, or the start of a season, any better way than what we saw tonight,” Crestwood veteran coach Josh Jakacki said. “I have a ton of admiration for (Mogadore coach) Russ (Swartz) and the culture he has established with his program so to come in here and get a win like this tonight is a special way for us to start the year.”

Mogadore guard Jude Thiry attempts to pass the ball over the outstretched arms of Crestwood’s Augie Schweickert.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

The win had many special components to it, but the shining effort had to be the Devils’ defensive intensity.

Quick hands and quick feet constantly put Crestwood in position to force turnovers — and Mogadore committed 21 of them on Friday.

“We spend a lot of time at practice working on defense,” Jakacki said. “All of the scoring looks good, it looks pretty and oftentimes get all of the headlines, but we know that our bread and butter has to be defense. That is where we are going to win our games. Tonight, I thought we were dialed in and in unison on defense for about three quarters of the game.”

Dekota Johnson and Brody Durham were the Devils’ top scorers and produced some electric moments offensively, but the duo were also leaders defensively, with Durham swiping six steals and Johnson corralling five.

Johnson started the game slow offensively, hitting just three of his first 11 shots. However, he finished the game scorching hot, hitting eight of his final 10 shots, including four 3-pointers with each one seemingly launching deeper and deeper each time.

Johnson finished with 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting (5-of-10 from 3-point range), and he also had five rebounds.

Durham had 17 points, while also dishing out seven assists.

James Durham goes up for a layup during the second half of Friday’s game in Mogadore.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

James Durham was a third Crestwood player in double-digits with 10 points (5-of-6 shooting).

“Outside of a stretch in the second quarter when I thought we were really settling for some shots, I thought we played well on offense tonight and were aggressive.”

After falling behind big early, Mogadore (2-1) settled down a little more the rest of the way, committing 13 turnovers over the next three quarters and being outscored 45-31 over that same timespan.

Jordon Smith was the only Wildcats player to reach double figures. He scored 12 points and also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the double-double.

Crestwood led 34-9 at halftime and 50-22 going into the fourth quarter, then used a 12-0 run to start the fourth quarter to push out to its biggest lead at 62-22.