LIZTON — Ian Hensley sparked the run, Karsten Williamson closed the deal, and Jesse Hall was steady in a 79-63 blowout Crawfordsville win over Sagamore Conference foe Tri-West on Friday night.
Hensley scored all 13 of his points in the first half, as the Athenians took a 41-23 lead into the break. The sophomore buried his second 3-pointer at the 5:12 mark in the first quarter to start a 21-9 run over the next 6:39.
“Go to the rim and be physical,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said of the game plan. “Some of the guys in practice this week were frustrated, because we let them be so physical. We added a couple of toughness drills where it kind of took fouling out of the rules just to be prepared for Tri-West’s physicality.”
The Athenians (12-7, 4-2 SAC), who have won three-straight, had no problem getting to the basket, connecting on 28-of-52 (54%) shots, including 42 converted points in the pain. Tri-West was 23-of-53 (43%) from the field.
The Bruins (8-9, 3-3 SAC) made a run in the third quarter behind four 3-pointers from Taylor Gardner to cut the lead to 47-39 midway through the third quarter. The senior scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, but his efforts weren’t enough.
Tri-West came no closer, and the Athenians eventually turned a 10-point lead after 24 minutes of play into a 15-point lead midway through the fourth quarter as Karsten Williamson scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, including a 6-of-6 mark at the free throw line. Crawfordsville was a perfect 17-of-17 on charity tosses, including 15 makes in the second half.
“They’re talented shooters,” Pierce said of Hensley and Williamson. “and had been playing a little bit of mind games with percentages. Hopefully tonight they’re confidence is back.”
The duo combined for 10-of-15 shooting in the win.
Jesse Hall led the Athenians with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Winners of four of its last five games, Pierce is starting to see glimpses of what this Crawfordsville team can be.
“We are starting to,” he said. “That’s two games now. I’m starting to see things on defense where we are in the right position, and at the beginning of the season we were having to teach kids how to do that.”
Crawfordsville hosts Central Catholic on Tuesday, before hosting Danville on Friday and ending the regular season with a road trip Covington the following Friday.
Crawfordsville 79, Tri-West 63
CHS 20 21 13 25 — 79
TW 13 10 21 19 — 63
CHS (12-7, 4-2 SAC): Ty Lynas 3-5 2-2 8, Carson Scott 1-2 0-0 2, Karsten Williamson 5-9 6-6 18, Ziair Morgan 3-5 0-0 7, Jesse Hall 7-14 9-9 23, Cole Watt 1-2 0-0 2, Nate Mayer 0-1 0-0 0, Alex Kellerman 0-3 0-0 0, Ian Hensley 5-6 0-0 13, Alex Hernandez 0-0 0-0 0, Mekhi Wallace 3-6 0-0 6; Totals 28-52 17-17 79.
TW (8-9, 3-3 SAC): Dawson Wolfe 0-0 0-2 0, Luke Robertson 2-7 2-2 6, Taylor Gardner 8-13 5-6 25, Bryce Hendershot 3-6 0-2 6, Nicolas Smith 2-5 1-2 5, Nicholas Chinn 2-2 1-2 7, Alex Covey 3-12 1-2 7, Dylan Bear 3-8 0-0 7; Totals 23-53 10-18 63.
3-Point Shooting: CHS 6-13 (Hensley 3, Williamson 2, Morgan), TW 7-11 (Gardner 4, Chinn 2, Bear).
Rebounds: CHS 31, TW 26
Turnovers: CHS 7, TW 8
