| While Summit led Cranford at the end of every quarter, it was hardly a smooth ride. Cranford took an early lead in the 1st Quarter, but Summit got points from five players to wind up on top 17-14. Six players provided scoring in the 2nd Quarter, led by Will Schaffer’s 3rd and 4th three pointer, as Summit expanded the lead to 5 points (33-28).
But things changed in 2nd half. Cranford turned up the defensive pressure and really disrupted the Summit offense. Turnovers came by the handful and Summit struggled to hang on to their 5 point lead. Michael Kaelin was strong under the hoop leading Summit’s scoring with eight 3rd quarter points and grabbing lots of rebounds on his way to a game high 16 rebounds. So Summit entered the final 8 minutes nursing a 5 point lead.
Over the first 4 minutes of the 4th quarter Summit extended the lead to 12 points, but turnover after turnover allowed Cranford to quickly reduce the lead to 7 points at 67-60. However, Summit were strong at the foul line as Cranford was forced to foul. Overall Summit was 16 of 19 from the foul line in the 4th quarter. Schafer was 8 for 8 and Dan Montgomery was 4 for 4.
Schaffer led the team scoring with 25 points and Kaelin scored 16 point, Dan Montgomery was also in double digits with 11 point, 9 coming in the 4th quarter. Kaelin was huge under the boards with 16 rebounds.
A major snafu occurred in the final quarter. Jordan Gonzales was called for his 4th foul, but the Cranford score book showed he had five fouls. About 5 minutes went by while the refs tried to resolve the issue. They eventually ruled in favor of the Cranford book.
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