CRESTVIEW, Ohio (WKBN) – The Crestview girls basketball team is winning at a pace that only one team has ever done before.
“I know we expected to win, but I didn’t think we would win this much,” said Crestview freshman Addison Rhodes.
The Rebels are 21-2 and gearing up to play in the Division III District Final on Saturday night.
The team is on the cusp of tying the school record for wins in a season at 22. That comes on the heels of winning the first conference title since 2008 a few short weeks ago.
“It’s crazy,” said sophomore Regan Edwards. “In the beginning of the season, we came off hot and now we’re maturing as a team and I think it’s really, really coming together. I mean, it’s just exciting to see everything blending together, and that’s what a real team looks like.”
The Crestview team members are experiencing plenty of firsts in their basketball careers. The Rebel roster is comprised entirely of underclassmen with a single junior and a slew of freshmen and sophomores.
“They’ve put in the work to kind of get to that point,” said head coach Aaron Blatch. “But at the same time, there’s not really a substitute for that varsity experience.”
“It’s a completely different environment from middle school or even travel basketball,” added freshman Ava Bucey. “I mean, you never have a crowd about that crazy and wild and huge, especially in Crestview.”
Large crowds and pressure have not impacted the young squad. Rhodes scored 30 points in her first varsity game and then went on to average 20 points per game for the Rebels.
“The shots were falling,” Rhodes said. “So I just kept shooting them and I don’t know, I just felt, I felt like I wasn’t like pressure or anything. I felt normal, how I normally play like last year. So just normal for me.”
Now that the tournament is in full swing, the team wants to continue shattering records.
“Every day I’m hearing from people in the community, I’m hearing from other staff members at the school,” Blatch admitted. “It’s a whole school and a whole community thing and, you know, I think we’re going to be up for the challenge.”
Crestview will face top-seeded Laurel in the Division III District Final on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Lakeview High School.
“We knew we wanted to accomplish a lot. I mean, we’re just going to run as far as we can,” Bucey said.
