A new look defense helped Crawfordsville run past Fountain Central 56-37 on Friday.
For the first time this season, the Athenians implemented a one-three-one defensive trap and outscored the Mustangs 21-4 in the second quarter to build a 34-13 halftime lead.
“We tried to do something different and it worked,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said. “I thought our pressure was able to create some transition points and obviously put them on their heels a little bit.”
Senior Alec Saidian, who was a part of the winter snowcoming court during intermission, led the Athenians with 16, including 11 in the second period.
Crawfordsville has won five of six games since Saidian made his season debut just before Christmas.
The loss is the fourth-straight for Fountain Central, who managed just one field goal in the second quarter.
“You have to kind of compartmentalize stuff,” Mustang coach Greg Dean said. “You can’t just look at that segment and just say ‘that’s who we are,’ you have to say ‘this is what we did wrong and put ourselves in this situation, how can we get better? What can we do to change this?’”
Johnovan Smith hit back-to-back three-pointers for the Athenians (5-7) to start the third quarter. His defense to offense helped spark Crawfordsville all night.
“For three quarters I thought Johnovan had a ton of deflections and created a lot of opportunities for us, and we hit a lot of hight percentage shots just from transition and points off turnovers,” Pierce said.
The freshman added 12 points in the win, while Jacob Lee scored nine.
Down 43-13 midway through the third, Fountain Central (3-9) outscored Crawfordsville 24-14 the rest of the way.
“The guys kept going,” Dean said “I thought we did things better in the second half. We held them to a lower number defensively, and put some points on the board.”
Eli Foxworthy led the Mustangs with 16 points, while Noah Dodson chipped in seven.
