In a Sugar Creek Classic final rematch, Crawfordsville earned redemption over Western Boone with a 67-60 win on Tuesday night in boys’ basketball.
A 25-10 first quarter gave Crawfordsville a double-digit lead as they hit 11-of-13 shots. The Stars clawed back to within five points at the break (35-30), but the Athenians never surrendered the lead and led wire-to-wire, while connecting on 30-of-41 (73%) field goals.
“Obviously our game plan was to go inside tonight,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said. “We have asked the guys to go inside instead of settling for threes and tonight they bought in. We shot high percentage shots because we were very patient tonight.”
Jesse Hall ended with a game-high 30 points for the Athenians and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Western Boone (8-8, 3-4 SAC) outscored Crawfordsville (11-7, 3-2 SAC) 50-42 over the final three quarters, but coach Josh Burkett was frustrated with the way the Stars started.
“We started off very bad in the beginning,” he said. “Down 15-2, that’s very tough to come back from, but I thought they battled through it and chipped away. They’re just a team that doesn’t quit. It was a competitive game from the second quarter forward.”
The starting lineup of Hall, Karsten Williamson, Carson Scott, Ian Hensley, and Mekhi Wallace was the unit that started the Crawfordsville run, and gave the Athenians their double-digit lead and helped hold on in the second half.
“They’re confidence comes from getting stops on the defensive end and grabbing rebounds and taking off in transition,” Pierce said. “They’re our best defenders and I was proud of all of our guys whether they started the game or came off the bench. Cole Watt and Carson Scott did a great job on some guys that were bigger than them out there and they were able to give them fits.”
Crawfordsville entered Tuesday’s matchup looking for revenge from a 59-54 loss in the Classic, while Western Boone carried confidence by dawning their championship t-shirts during warm-ups.
“I was disappointed in our effort the last time,” he said. “We just thought that we could show up and win. Tonight we came out and were ready to compete and that was the biggest difference. I still want to give them credit. I thought we played really good defense and they still ended with two guys who scored 20. That shows how athletic they are.”
Cortez Stoudemire led the Stars with 21 points, while Spencer Wright added 20, but Western Boone made just 20-of-52 shots, and were only 8-of-15 from the charity stripe in the second half.
Karsten Williamson added 13 points for the Athenians.
Crawfordsville returns to the floor on Friday at Tri-West, while Western Boone visits Speedway on Thursday.
Crawfordsville 67, Western Boone 60
WB 10 20 12 18 — 60
CHS 25 10 17 15 — 67
WB (8-8, 3-4 SAC): Cortex Stoudemire 7-14 4-6 21, Jonathan McAtee 3-3 1-4 7, Caleb Freeman 0-3 0-0 0, Spencer Wright 6-16 6-9 20, Connor Hole 1-9 0-2 2, Brett Wethington 1-1 0-0 2, Jake Jones 3-5 0-0 8; Totals 20-52 11-19 60.
CHS (11-7, 3-2 SAC): Ty Lynas 3-4 0-1 6, Carson Scott 1-2 0-0 2, Karsten Williamson 5-10 3-4 13, Ziair Morgan 1-1 0-0 2, Jesse Hall 14-16 1-1 30, Cole Watt 1-1 0-1 2, Ian Hensley 1-2 1-2 4, Mekhi Wallace 4-5 0-0 8; Totals 30-41 5-8 67.
3-Point Shooting: WB 7-14 (Stoudemire 3, Jones 2, Wright 2), CHS 2-4 (Hall, Hensley).
Rebounds: WB 26, CHS 24 (Hall 12)
Turnovers: WB 8, CHS 11
