Article & Photo by Wade Bell, Clarion News After winning their first two games of the season, the Crawford County Wolfpack hit a soft spot in the road Friday night against visiting Mitchell in a 10-point loss. Crawford County came out on fire early only to see things slip away through the mid-section of the game. The Wolfpack made a late rally but couldn’t climb out, resulting in Mitchell getting the 70-60 win. “We’ve had two great games against New Washington and South Central,” said Crawford County coach Jonathon Bowles. “We knew tonight was going to be a little bit different. We knew this team was going to make us push the ball, up push the tempo to where the other teams have been pressing. They kind of made it where we had to push. "But we’re comfortable with that," he said. "What we’ve got to get better at is where we up push the tempo and score, get out on our break. We had instances where we could not get out as well as we could have.” The Wolfpack came out on fire in the first quarter hitting eight of their 14 attempts from the field with sophomore Braxton Bowman scoring Crawford County’s first 10 points of the game. Mitchell, meanwhile, connected on four of its 11 attempts. Crawford County took a 15-5 lead before Gavin Robinson finally got a three-ball to go down for Mitchell. The two teams traded points before the end of the quarter, the Wolfpack leading by seven going into the second. The Wolfpack fell into a sand pit in the second period, while the Bluejackets pulled out their stingers. Crawford County had just two of its 10 shots go down in the eight minutes, while Mitchell sank eight of its 14 shots. Mitchell began the quarter with a 9-0 burst to take the lead. Bowman scored in the paint for the Wolfpack, but the Bluejackets countered with a 10-2 run to lead 31-23. Mitchell scored the final four points of the half, and the Bluejackets had a 35-24 lead at the break. “It started to flip a little bit there at the end (of the first quarter),” Bowles said. “It wasn’t bad but give a lot of credit to Mitchell. Clint (Roesler); he’s a good coach. He’s one of the young, up-and-coming guys, and he’s really good. They called a timeout and adjusted and woke up a little bit. Their defense got a little bit better. They tightened up some things, so I give a lot of credit to them. “I thought we got a little lethargic," he said. "I don’t know if we were tired in that second quarter or what. We had worked on pushing the basketball, and I thought we walked it entirely too much in that second quarter.” Crawford County got itself back in the game in the third when Ricky Miszkiel drilled a three and Bowman got a deuce-and-one, the gap cut to 35-30. The Wolfpack kept within striking distance, but the Bluejackets countered on each Crawford County score. Mitchell’s lead went back to double digits when Garrett Floerke hit from behind the arc. Bowman and Landon Sines scored the next five to start an 8-3 run, and the Wolfpack was down six with eight minutes left. Bowman cut the lead to three early in the fourth quarter, hitting from downtown. Robinson scored the next four for the Bluejackets, but Devin Decker drilled a three in response, Crawford County still within four. Robinson was Mitchell’s go-to guy through the next few minutes, scoring five more for an eight-point lead. Ian Sturgeon and Bowman pulled Crawford County back within four, but Robinson hit a jumper, the Bluejacket lead back to six. Brody Fish hit a long three, putting Crawford County again back within three, 61-58. From there, it was all Mitchell, which finished with a 9-2 burst for the 70-60 win. “I really loved how we came out at halftime,” said Bowles. “We didn’t freak out. We talked about staying calm. We’re only down 11 points; it’s not that bad, And, our guys really responded. I think we might have exerted so much energy in that third quarter that we just didn’t have what it takes to climb that mountain and get over the hump. We cut it to three, and we couldn’t just get it over the hump.” Bowman led the Wolfpack with 31 points for the game. Crawford County put away 22 of its 51 field-goal attempts (43%) and 11 of 15 free throws. The Wolfpack had 15 turnovers for the night, six of those in the second quarter. “We’ve got to be in better condition,” Bowles said. “That falls back on me. Just things like that through the week that we can clean up as a staff, get these guys a little bit better prepared. The unfortunate part is we don’t have a full week. We’re playing tomorrow night. We’re going to learn the maturity of this group.” Robinson led the Bluejackets with 28 points for the game. Kaden Mullis and Floerke followed with 13 points each. Mitchell put in 25 of its 48 field goals (52%) and 16 of 25 from the charity stripe. The Bluejackets had 20 turnovers for the 32 minutes. “The Robinson kid has been a varsity player for three years for a reason,” said Bowles. "He’s a senior this year and played really well … I take full responsibility on this one. I thought our defensive game plan could have been a lot better. That’s not on the players; that’s ultimately on me. Robinson is a really great player and had a great game. I think we could have had a better plan on him tonight.” Bowles said his team will take the game not as a loss, but as a learning experience. “That’s one thing we were talking about in the locker room,” he said. “We don’t ever lose. You either win or you learn, those two things. We never lose. If we can learn from this, at the end of the day maybe it’s not all bad when we’re sitting here in February. Nobody wants to get beat and I never want to get beat but, if we can take some notes from this game and learn from it and get better from then, that’s all you can ask. “I just think we can never take our foot off the gas,” Bowles said. “We did that at times tonight. When I say us, I’m talking about me. I think there was some stuff, defensively, where I got a little conservative. We’re just a team that can’t be conservative. Some of the best things Braxton, Decker and Ian do are hounding the ball handlers. Brody is really good at running. We took away some of our strengths, and that’s the biggest take-away. Defensively, we’ve got to clean up the straight-line drives, and they killed us on that tonight.” Mitchell 11 24 14 21 - 70 Crawford County 18 6 19 17 - 60 Mitchell - Robinson 28, Floerke 13, Mullis 13, Goldsberg 9, Zepeda 7. Crawford County - Bowman 31, Decker 8, Miszkiel 7, Sines 6, Sturgeon 5, Fish 3. 3-point goals - Mitchell 6 (Floerke 3, Robinson 3); Crawford County 5 (Miszkiel 2, Bowman 1, Decker 1, Fish 1).