COVINGTON — Fountain Central’s girls basketball team picked up where they left off before the holiday break, with a 45-27 WRC win over Covington.
It was defense and some timely shooting for the Mustangs, who move to 16-3 on the season and stay in first place in the conference at 4-0. The Trojans fall to 9-10 on the season and 3-2 in the league.
“We spend so much time on our defense, and the girls take so much pride in how well we try to play defense,” FC coach Sam Karr said. “If we can score in the 40’s we feel we always have a good chance to win.”
The Mustangs defense is at the point of being state-ranked.
They are allowing 29.5 points a game, which is third in the state, no matter the class. They held Covington to 27 percent shooting, hit seven three-pointers and scored 19 points off 15 Trojans turnovers, while having only eight turnovers themselves.
“I’ll take that any day,” Karr noted, “and when we can hit some shots like tonight, we can be close to scary.”
Four different shooters hit at least one trey, as the visitors shot 37 percent from the field but 47 percent from long range.
“We played a really good first quarter, and a good half,” Covington coach Mark Switzer said. “We had some offensive setbacks in the second half and Fountain Central hit all those three’s. They are a good team and hard to beat.”
Switzer and Karr, who coached together in their past, had lots of good things to say about each other’s teams.
Switzer’s offense was stymied by the Mustangs defense, as only one player, Lilly Hacquet, hit more than one field goal.
“Both game balls went to defensive efforts tonight,” Karr said.
“Riley Simko and Hannah Prickett brought their defensive efforts tonight,” he said. “They took pride in their work, and it showed.”
Prickett was also the leading scorer in the game, and did everything on an ankle the size of a softball.
“I thought she was done for the night,” Karr said when Prickett limped off the floor with 4:45 left in the first quarter.
The junior got the ankle wrapped up, came back in during the second quarter, and scored 13 of her game-best 18 points after the injury.
The bum ankle is nothing new for the Mustangs, who have faced one medical issue of injury all season.
“We have not had a single game with everyone healthy and available,” Karr said. “It’s a tribute to the medical folks and to the girls for playing through the injuries or illnesses.”
Next in the scoring column for FC was Henley Good.
The freshman, who missed nearly the entire break with a leg issue, finished with eight points, three under her average, but did dish out three assists, had a steal and blocked a shot.
Bella Bacon came off the bench to score four, but led her team with eight rebounds.
“Great job off the bench,” Karr said of the freshman. “Aubrey Ashwill also had a good reserve game with four points and three rebounds”
The Trojans, led by Hacquet’s 10 points, were led on the glass by Sydni Crain’s eight boards. The junior added five points.
“We are still learning,” Switzer said, noting that this is his first season at the helm. “We are working hard every day, and today we just had a good half. We need four good quarters against teams like Fountain Central.”
Both teams have big WRC games ahead as the season starts to wind down.
The Trojans have a trip to play Parke Heritage on Wednesday. The Wolves are 3-0 in the league. There are games with both Crawfordsville and Southmont in the next two weeks.
The Mustangs have that same Parke Heritage team next, but not until Jan 18. First place in the conference will be on the line.
