Seldom are coaches really pleased with a team’s effort, especially early in the season. That was not that case for Fountain Central girls’ basketball coach Sam Karr after his team’s 45-14 win over Crawfordsville on Tuesday.
“I told the girls before the game I wanted to see effort,” the coach said. “I can honestly say I saw that and I was pretty happy with what I saw.”
The effort was most obvious on the defensive end of the floor. The Mustangs (5-2) did not give up a field goal until the 5:03 mark of the second quarter and allowed just two points in the first quarter on its way to a 13-2 lead after eight minutes of play.
Then the team pitched a shutout in the third quarter as they outscored the Athenians 11-0 to take a 35-9 lead into the final quarter. For the game the Athenians (1-4) hit just 5 of 27 shots form the floor for 18%.
“We got after it pretty well on the defensive end of the floor,” Karr said. “We aren’t where we need to be offensively but that’s on me. The first two weeks of practice we pretty much concentrate on defense. If you can make the other team from scoring much you always have a chance to win.”
After scoring more than 30 points in each of their first four games, the Athenians struggled offensively all night.
“They just take you out of your game,” second year Crawfordsville coach Joe Ferguson said. “I thought we played pretty well on defense. We would play well for a stretch and then they would break someone loose. But offensively, they got us sped up and we rushed things. We don’t want to play that way. We have to learn to be able to back things out and reset.”
Another key for the Mustangs was the play of Bella Bacon who scored a game-high 14 points off the bench. She also added five rebounds. She hit a couple to field goals, added a three pointer and was 7 of 9 from the foul line. The Mustangs only had five girls score led by Bacon’s 14. Henly Good added 11 points and Kaylee Spragg added nine. The visitors had even split of points inside and outside which was another thing that pleased Karr.
“We haven’t really been able to go inside with a lot of consistency but we are getting a lot better in that area,” he said. “That will only be make us a better team.”
Crawfordsville was led by senior Celeste Moore who scored five points.
Fountain Central entertains Frontier on Friday. Crawfordsville will battle North Montgomery in the first round of the Sugar Creek Classic on Friday at Crawfordsville.
