LIZTON — For a third-straight game, Crawfordsville boys’ basketball failed to reach 40 points. Friday night it was a 59-39 setback at Sagamore Conference foe Tri-West, as the Athenians dropped their third game in a row and six of their last seven.
Trailing 25-21 at the half, the Athenians failed to make a field goal in the third quarter, scoring a single point in the final minute. Tri-West outscored Crawfordsville 15-1 in the eight-minute period and took a 40-22 lead into the fourth.
“The very first four possessions, we executed the play, got two shots that we wanted and bricked them and then they had two blocked shots,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said of the start of the second half. “Then we took a timeout and tried to regroup and then from that point on for whatever reason the rim got tighter and tighter and we didn’t shoot the ball very well.”
Crawfordsville connected on just 12-of-44 (27%) of field goals for the game, including 4-of-23 in the second half.
The Athenians, who fall to 7-10 overall and 3-3 in the SAC, started the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run to make it 42-31 with 6:51 to go, but only made a single basket the rest of the way. Tri-West outscored Crawfordsville 17-8 down the stretch.
“If you’re looking at it from x’s and o’s perspective, we had open shots,” Pierce said. “We’ve got to bury them. We are varsity basketball players with wide open shots. From two feet and the three-point line. And if we don’t hit them, we are not going to win too many games, especially on the road.”
Tri-West improves to 15-5 on the season and 5-1 in league play. The Bruins connected on 24-of-54 from the field in the win. Tri-West out-rebounded Crawfordsville 39-27.
Alec Saidian led Crawfordsville with 10 points, while Tyson Fuller added nine. Drew Miller scored 15 to lead all scorers, while Max Robertson chipped in 13, and Wes Ward 10 to lead Tri-West.
Crawfordsville will host Twin Lakes tonight, welcome Danville Friday and Central Catholic next Saturday.
“It’s that time of year where we are playing bigger teams and bigger players and we are just going to have to toughen up and get ready for sectional,” Pierce said.
