LEBANON — Danville jumped out to a 17-0 advantage and never looked back in a 53-16 win over Crawfordsville on Wednesday night in the opening round of the Class 3A Sectional 25 at Lebanon.
The Warriors (20-4) led 20-4 after a quarter and 32-9 at halftime as they cruised to the easy win over their Sagamore Conference rival Athenians (7-16).
Crawfordsville was held without a field goal until Taylor Abston scored with 7:28 to go in the second quarter. Danville only connected on 12-of-43 (28%) shots in the first half, but hauled down 24 first-half rebounds, including 18 on the offensive end and sped up the Athenians into 19 turnovers in the first 16 minutes.
“That’s been the Achilles heel all year, rebounding and then you play a team with that much height and athleticism, it’s tough,” Crawfordsville coach Tyler Smith said. “I think our press-break I was pleased with, it was just most of the time in the half-court once we got past the initial trap.”
Smith was also pleased with the Athenians’ half-court defense in the opening half.
“Other than leaving 22 (Rector) open a few times, I thought defensively that we were doing a decent job mixing up defenses,” he said. “We did a good job there, but losing a shooter a few times and obviously the second-chance kills you, and kills momentum when you feel like you’ve done your part to get the stop and you can’t complete the play.”
Once Danville jumped to such a wide lead, there was little Crawfordsville could do to recover, but Smith was overall happy with the effort.
“I think our spirits were high, and they knew the challenge at hand,” he said. “They know what Danville brings and we had a good week of practice leading up to it. But, obviously when you get hit in the mouth early, it’s a different game to figure out if ‘can I stay composed and stay poised,’ but overall I’m please with the fight and effort.”
Cameryn Rector led Danville with 14 points, all in the first half, while Kooper Stone chipped in eight, and Emma Ancelet and Addison Davis each scored in seven. Taylor Abston led Crawfordsville with 11 points.
While Crawfordsville’s season comes to a close, it’s the end of career for seniors Abby Cox and Elyse Widmer.
“We are thrilled to have them,” Smith said. “Wonderful examples of being an Athenian, being a student-athlete. Elyse is the one girl we’ve had for all four years, and we’ve had Abby for three. It’s always tough for them and these moments, and the season is like a second family, so when it’s over it’s kind of tough. Reflecting in the locker room with some tears and that obviously shows how fun it is and how good it is with the memories you make. We wish them well, and they really left their mark. Now the work just begins as we accomplished quite a bit and we look to build on that in the future with a lot of returning players.”
