It had been since 2011 since Crawfordsville girls basketball accomplished what they did Saturday in 65-51 win over Monrovia. After putting up 61 points against Riverton Parke in a win on Thursday, Crawfordsville scored 60 or more points in back to back games for the first time since 2011. The Athenians led from the opening tip as their offense continues to find its rhythm in the ladder part of the season.
Crawfordsville had four starters in double figures led by Shea Williamson’s 18 points. Liddy McCarty found her shot making three three’s in a 17 point effort for CHS. Olivia Reed scored 12 and Taylor Abston added in 11. Kearston Hutchens also notched seven points in the win.
“We’re at this time of the year where we want to be playing our best,” Crawfordsville coach Tyler Smith said. “This is how we want to play with having multiple girls step up. Liddy had a huge game for us today. She’s always been good about driving to the basket, but to be able to knock down some outside shots opens up her game and makes us even more dangerous. It feels nice to get these last two because we know that this could be a good last few weeks for us if we continue to play well.”
While the Bulldogs, who fall to 5-14 on the season, did a make a few mini runs throughout the game to try and close the CHS lead, everytime the Athenians responded with a bucket of their own and never let their lead slip below six points the entire game. Crawfordsville controlled the flow of the game and Smith kept reassuring his team they wouldn’t let a huge run happen.
“Two of our timeouts were very strategic just to settle the girls down a little bit,” he said. “We held their top scorer to just four points so our defensive game plan worked the entire game. Our girls just weathered the storm well and remained confident and it felt good to be at the end of the game where you can coast to the finish.”
The Athenians are now 6-12 on the season and the end of the season schedule continues to look promising. Their final four games include Covington (6-10) on Tuesday followed by a county matchup with Southmont on Saturday. The Athenians end the final week of the regular season with two home games against North Vermillion and Frankfort.
“We’re in a very similar situation to where we were last year,” Smith said. “We finished the year strong and hope to the same this year. Everyone of these games are up for grabs and we’re telling our girls to expect a battle and expect a war to the very end.”
