COVINGTON — The Crawfordsville boys’ basketball team wrapped up their regular season on Friday night with a 75-68 overtime loss at Covington
Down by as many as 10 in the second half the Athenians were able to force overtime as junior Jesse Hall hit a layup with 6.6 seconds left to tie the game at 64-64.
However in overtime a quick turnover by the Athenians turned into an easy layup by Covington. The next two plays Crawfordsville missed consecutive 3s and failed get a stop on the defensive end as the Trojans ran away in overtime.
Coach David Pierce despite the loss was proud of the way his team fought against a tough opponent on the road.
“Our plan was to go inside in overtime and we didn’t do that,” he said. “We also couldn’t get a stop on the defensive end which allowed them to keep extending their lead. We don’t want to be a team that continued to live and die by the three-point shot. Our goal was to shoot under 14 3’s and we ended shot 22. Overall though I’m real happy with how we executed and fought tonight on the road in a hostile environment. Some ill-advised turnovers and 3’s cost us tonight but we were right with them the entire game. I think our guys feel good about how we played overall tonight. If we take that into the sectional next week, we should be in great shape.”
On the night Crawfordsville (12-10) shot just 8-of-22 from behind the 3-point arc, but still managed to shoot 25-of-52 overall from the field. Hall led the way with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Ian Hensley ended with 15 points, Ty Lynas added 13 and Karsten Williamson finished with 10.
With sectional play beginning next week, Pierce believes that this performance will prepare his team well for what they will see next in the postseason as they get ready for a win-or-go-home environment.
“The only thing that we could’ve asked more of our guys tonight was to get a win,” Pierce said. “I don’t think it could’ve been set up any better for our guys to prepare for the sectional. We’re going to be ready to go get the Bruins next week.”
Crawfordsville ends their regular season with record of 12-10 (4-3 SAC). The team will play Tri-West in the opening round of the Class 3A Sectional 25 tournament on Wednesday at Greencastle. Coming off a 79-63 win over the Bruins two weeks ago, Pierce expects the Bruins to challenge his team even more than their first matchup.
“Both teams are going to make adjustments,” he said. “The key will be are we focused, and are we coming to play hard? You’ll know within the first five minutes of the game whether our kids are ready to play. I think they will be and we’ll make sure we have them prepared and focused for Wednesday.”
The matchup against the Bruins will get underway Wednesday starting at 6 p.m.
Covington 75, Crawfordsville 68 OT
COV 18 16 20 10 11 — 75
CHS 19 16 11 18 4 — 68
Covington (17-6): Colton Brown 7-14 2-7 18, Neil Ellmore 0-0 0-0 0, Duncan Keller 0-0 0-0 0, Trey Bever 0-0 0-0 0, Allan Karrfalt 0-3 0-2 0, Calvin Springer 0-0 0-0 0, Daniel Keller 2-6 1-2 7, Savion Waddell 2-2 0-0 7, Logan Pinkerton 7-14 0-3 22, Caleb Ellmore 8-11 0-0 17, Alex Rogers 0-0 0-0 0, Dane Gerling 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Herzog 2-2 0-0 4
Crawfordsville (12-10, 4-3 SAC): Ty Lynas 3-11 3-9 13, Carson Scott 0-1 0-0 0, Karsten Williamson 4-8 2-3 10, Ziair Morgan 1-3 1-2 3, Jesse Hall 8-16 0-2 21, Cole Watt 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Mayer 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Kellerman 0-0 0-0 0, Ian Hensley 6-10 2-5 15, Alex Hernandez 0-0 0-0 0, Mekhi Wallace 3-3 0-0 6
