By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

With so many underclassmen expected to receive significant minutes this season, Andrew Mertz knew all along that his team was going to need some time.

The first-year Crestwood boys basketball coach understood that his team wouldn’t be able to skip the necessary step of gaining experience on the court.

But now something is building in Mantua.

The grit and work ethic had always been there, but now the confidence is growing and so is a win streak.

The Red Devils won their third straight game on Friday, pulling out a 71-70 come-from-behind victory over the visiting Rootstown Rovers.

Playing without senior standout post player Angelo DiNardo (16.7 points and 11.0 rebounds per game), who was out with an illness, Crestwood rallied behind sophomore Colton Mayle’s 33 points to erase a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit for a win in front of a sellout Youth Night crowd.

“Wow. I am super proud of the guys tonight,” Mertz said. “I don’t know that I have seen them this happy in a long time. They deserve to be. They battled all night tonight, and they really continue to amaze me every day.”

In a push and pull game that featured 12 lead changes in the second quarter alone, Rootstown closed the third quarter on an 11-3 run to turn a deadlocked 40-40 tie into a 51-43 lead going into the fourth, with a right wing 3 from Ethan White closing out the offensive spurt for the Rovers.

Rootstown’s lead grew to its largest, 55-46, following a pair of free throws by Landon Rodstrom and a layup from Carson Hayn.

Just when it appeared that the Devils were in the danger zone, they resiliently began to chip away at the Rovers’ lead.

At first, Rootstown had an offensive answer prepared to keep Crestwood at bay.

Kyle Shelhamer buried a 3 to make it 59-56, then Michael Kalista hit his own from deep to cut the Devils’ deficit to 61-59 with 3:38 to play. Mayle hit a lefty floater to turn the Rovers’ lead to 65-62, then Kalista buried another 3 on the following possession to finally pull Crestwood even again at 65-65 with 2:23 remaining.

Joel Custer then gave Crestwood its first lead since early in the third quarter when he drove down the right of the key, ducked under a Rootstown defender and scooped a layup off the glass for a 67-65 Crestwood advantage.

Rodstrom and Dean Abdlrasul took turns splitting a pair of free throws to knot the score at 67s before Mayle hit a turnaround bank shot just under 1 minute to play to give Crestwood a 69-67 lead.

Hayn hit another free throw with 12.5 left to make it 69-68 Crestwood. Needing to foul to play the clock, Rootstown sent Kyle Shelhamer to the line, and he buried a pair of free throws to make it 71-68 Crestwood.

Rootstown had one last attempt to try to tie the game, calling timeout with just under 5 seconds left to draw up a potential tying attempt. The Rovers’ 3-point attempt fell short, but Blake Mullaly collected the rebound and hit a tough jumpshot near the free-throw line as time expired for the final points of the game.

“We caught the ball just a little bit out of rhythm, but we ran the play we wanted relatively clean,” Rootstown coach Joe Siciliano said of the final play of the game.

It was a flurry of a finish to a captivating game.

Mayle was electric for the Devils (4-7, 1-5 Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division).

The 6-foot-1 lefty scored a career-high 33 points and was incredibly efficient, scoring the mark on 12-of-16 shooting from the field (1-of-2 on 3s) and going 9-for-12 at the line. He also had team highs in rebounds (8), assists (4) and steals (4).

“Colton really had a huge game tonight,” Mertz said. “By the end of the game, we were in a situation where we just wanted to make sure we had the ball in his hands, then let him create. He is playing with such a high level of confidence right now and my mentality with that is to give him the freedom to do things. We have certain sets we want to run, but he is seeing things, and he is gaining a lot of trust with me that when the game is tight, we want the ball in his hands.”

Mayle’s eight rebounds were an answer to a team-wide challenge that Mertz gave to his team prior the game when they learned that they would be without DiNardo.

“Rebounding was our big message to the team,” Mertz said. “We knew without Ann that rebounding was where we were going to have to make up the biggest ground. I think we went after rebounds tonight with intensity and did a nice job.”

Crestwood out-rebounded Rootstown 33-27, with Jack Patton adding seven rebounds, Joel Custer had six and Wyatt Januska, despite playing the majority of the game in foul trouble, had five for the Devils.

Custer also joined Mayle in double figures for scoring with 10 points.

Abdlrasul led the Rovers (7-6, 2-4 CVC Valley) with 21 points on a sensational 8-of-9 shooting performance. He also had six rebounds and five assists. He was joined in double-digits by Ethan White and Mullaly, who both scored 14 points, while Mullaly also had 10 rebounds for the double-double.

Carson Hayn added 11 points and five assists for Rootstown, which played without starting point guard Caleb Fillmore and backup guard Noah Zager, who both were out with injuries.

“Our focus has to continue to be about consistency,” Siciliano said. “We have to play for all 32 minutes and not just in waves at different times of the game.”