An efficient offensive performance saved Crawfordsville boys’ basketball in a 75-62 Sagamore Conference win over Frankfort on Friday night.
The Athenians took a 32-28 halftime lead and built it to 55-47 after three quarters with a 23-point third period.
“To be honest I was displeased with our defense,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said. “I think because we ran in transition, and that was our message at halftime that we needed to push the ball as fast as possible, because they’re (Frankfort) not very deep, and I think they got tired.”
Crawfordsville (9-6, 2-2 SAC) sped Frankfort (3-10, 0-4 SAC) up into 10 second half turnovers, and connected on 17-of-29 shots from the field in the last 16 minutes.
Jesse Hall scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to lead the Athenians. Ian Hensley added a career-high 17 points, while Karsten Williamson reached double-figures with 11.
“I thought Ian Hensley had a really good game,” Pierce said. “He was aggressive, and he took 13 shots tonight. We need him to do that every night.”
The Athenians used a 7-0 run sparked by back-to-back Hall buckets to stretch a 42-37 lead into double-digits midway through the third quarter, and they never looked back.
Frankfort hung tough in the first half with a 10-of-24 shooting performance in the first 16 minutes. The Hot Dogs took a trio of first half leads, but were over-matched in the second.
Landen Mejia led the Frankfort with 19 points, while Braden Compton added 14 — but the big story was the Hot Dogs’ leading scorer of 14 points per game from Trey Frazier, being held to three points, all at the free throw line.
“We stayed on him (Frazier),” Pierce said. “We told Carson not to leave him. Carson is one of the best disciplined players I’ve ever coached. When you tell him to do something one time, he will do it every time that way when he’s in that situation. He’s a great kid to coach, because he’s so coachable. That’s why that kid only had three, because Carson Scott did his job.”
Crawfordsville out-rebounded Frankfort 29-28, including 15 from Hall to complete the double-double. Frankfort had 21 turnovers to just 12 by the Athenians, but Pierce believes guard play has to continue to improve if they are to make a late season run similar to last year.
“Our guard play has to be better,” he added. “It was not good tonight. We had nine turnovers between two guys and that’s got to improve. The competition is just going to get tougher and tougher.”
The final stretch of the season starts tonight at home against an 11-5 Northview squad.
Crawfordsville 75, Crawfordsville 62
FF 21 7 19 18 — 62
CHS 22 10 23 20 — 75
FF (3-10, 0-4 SAC): Jade Ayers 3-4 5-7 11, Trey Frazier 0-3 3-3 3, Cameron Williams 3-7 3-4 9, Landen Mejia 8-13 0-0 19, Riley Goodnight 3-5 0-0 6, Arod Valdes Sandoval 0-2 0-0 0, Braden Compton 4-9 4-6 14; Totals 21-43 15-20 62.
CHS (9-6, 2-2 SAC): Ty Lynas 3-6 0-0 6, Carson Scott 3-5 0-0 8, Karsten Williamson 3-9 5-5 11, Ziair Morgan 1-6 2-2 5, Jesse Hall 12-17 3-6 27, Cole Watt 0-2 1-2 1, Nate Mayer 0-1 0-0 0, Ian Hensley 7-13 1-1 17; Totals 29-59 12-16 75.
3-Point Shooting: FF 5-14 (Mejia 3, Compton 2), CHS 5-15 (Hensley 2, Scott 2, Morgan)
Rebounds: FF 28, CHS 29 (Hall 15)
Turnovers: FF 21, CHS 12
