GREENCASTLE — Coming off a season-opening loss at Seeger on Monday, Crawfordsville continued its week-long road trip tour at McAnally Center on Tuesday, taking on Greencastle in a matchup of future Monon Athletic Conference opponents.
The Athenian defense kept the game close for a half but the offense couldn’t keep up, scoring in double-digits only once in a 65-36 loss to the Tiger Cubs.
“(Greencastle’s) athletic guards gave our guards a little bit of trouble,” Crawfordsville head coach David Pierce said. “I’m a little disappointed with our guards’ handling of the physicality of the game. We backed down and that hurt us.
“Turnovers was the name of the game for us. We had a ton in the first half and are now averaging 26 turnovers a game after two games. We have a guard problem that we have to fix.
“Part of it is we have one guy, a JV/varsity guy, returning and that’s it,” Pierce added. “There’s a learning curve jumping from JV to varsity and we’re taking our lumps right now.”
Nathan Sutherlin scored the opening basket of the night before starting a string of baskets off steals which included one for Johnovan Smith and Sam Gooch as the hosts led 8-4.
A three from Cohen McCalamroch closed the gap to 8-7 though Trevin Long hit one in reply as Greencastle led 11-9 after a quarter of play.
Nolan Watt hit a three after a Gooch basket to make it 13-12 while Long hit another three that was answered by a Jacob Lee putback that made it 16-14.
From there, the Tiger Cubs went on a 10-1 run as Gooch scored twice with Ian Williamson, Taygan McRoberts and Sutherlin scoring a basket each to make it 26-15.
Jantzen Thayer hit a three with a minute left in the half to make it 26-18 but Sutherlin added one more score to make it 28-18 at halftime.
“One thing we talked about afterward was we can’t miss three-foot shots,” Pierce said as the team left several close looks off target. “We just missed easy shots.
“That’s Indiana basketball for you. If you miss a lot of easy shots, not only are you not going to compete but it’s not going to be close.”
Lee opened the second half with a basket in the paint but a nine-point burst took the game out of the Athenians’ hands as four different Tiger Cubs scored to make it 37-20.
A 14-3 run soon followed as Gooch scored seven points in the stretch as Greencastle took a 51-28 lead into the final quarter of play.
Gooch and Sutherlin finished off their 24- and 17-point nights respectively with a combined 10 points in the final quarter with Lee grabbing three baskets to finish with a team-high 12 for Crawfordsville.
