Central Catholic turned an early double-digit lead into a 78-60 blowout win over Crawfordsville on Tuesday night.
After the opening basket by Jesse Hall gave the Athenians a 2-0 lead, the Class A No. 5 ranked Knights hit three straight 3-pointers and ended the first quarter with a 29-13 advantage, and led 58-27 at the half.
The Knights shot 62% (28-of-45) overall on the night. The Athenians (12-8) were able to stop the bleeding a little bit in the second half, holding Central Catholic to just 20 points after a 58-point first half.
“I thought our defensive effort was horrible tonight,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said. “We thought just being up close to our guy was going to be good enough. You have to get a hand up on the shooter and we didn’t do that. Even after they hit a couple, our guys didn’t step up and compete even harder. I didn’t see that fire in our guys tonight and that was the most disappointing part of the first half. You have to give CC (Central Catholic) credit. I think they exploited the fact that we’re a young team. We have some growing pains that we have to work through and tonight we were just out-matched.”
Senior Carson Barrett had a perfect shooting night (9-of-9) for the Knights (17-3) as he recorded a game-high 22 points. Barrett also grabbed eight rebounds and dished out eight assists in the win. Clark Barrett added in 11 points.
Heading into the half down by 31, Pierce wanted his guys to compete and show a greater effort.
“They just competed harder, got a hand up on shooters, box out, and rebound better,” Pierce said. “We played harder and that’s what we asked them to do.”
Ian Hensley led the Athenians with 18 points in the loss. Hall ended with 16, and Ty Lynas added in 14. The road doesn’t get any easier for the Athenians as they will host Sagamore Conference foe Danville on Friday. The Warriors are 19-2 and ranked No. 2 in Class 3A and No. 14 overall in the state.
Central Catholic 78, Crawfordsville 60
CHS 13 14 12 21 — 60
CC 29 29 13 7 — 78
CHS (12-8, 4-2 SAC): Ty Lynas 5-12 2-5 14, Carson Scott 0-2 0-1 0,
Karsten Williamson 2-6 0-2 5, Ziair Morgan 2-8 0-5 4, Jesse Hall
6-11 2-6 16, Cole Watt 0-1 0-1 0, Nate Mayer 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Kellerman
1-3 1-3 3, Ian Hensley 8-13 1-3 18, Alex Hernandez 0-0 0-0 0, Mekhi
Wallace 0-0 0-0 0; Totals 24-56 6-9 60.
CC (17-3): Brenner Oliver 0-2 0-1 2, A.J. Bourdenet 4-4 3-3 13,
Tanner Sterrett 1-2 1-2 5, Brody Oliver 0-0 0-0 0, Clark Barrett
4-6 3-5 11, Nate Webb 6-7 2-2 12, Noah Wiercioch 3-6 0-0 8, Patrick
Gothard 1-3 0-0 4, Clark Obermiller 0-0 0-0 0, Carson Barrett 9-9 3-3 22,
Kyle Onken 0-5 0-0 1; Totals 28-45 10-13 78
3-Point Shooting: CHS 6-26 (Lynas 2, Hall 2, Hensley 1, Kellerman 1),
CC 12-16 (Carson Barrett 3, Clark Barrett 3, Bordenet 3, Webb 2, Sterrett 1).
Rebounds: CC 35, CHS 19
Turnovers: CC 15, CHS 7
