By CALE STEPHENS
HoosierAuthority.com
FOWLER – Poor shooting plagued the Class 3A No. 6 Crawfordsville Athenians in the Holiday Tournament at Benton Central on Friday. The Athenians overcame their shooting woes enroute to a tournament championship by defeating Sagamore Athletic Conference rival Danville 46-36 in the opening round and knocking off host Benton Central 49-42 in the final game.
Crawfordsville sophomore Alex Gasaway scored a game-high 14 points in the championship game and finished with 20 points for the tournament. “All around, Alex had a great game,”
Crawfordsville coach Darren Haas said. “She’ll be the first to tell you that she didn’t play well but, she stepped up when we needed her.”
Benton Central junior Alyshia Harvey led all tournament scorers with 29 points. Harvey netted 22 points in the opening round 60-35 win over Zionsville. Zionsville junior Emily Dixon was second high for the tournament with 23 with 12 points in the loss to BC and 11 points in the consolation win over Danville. Danville was led by senior guard Mak Leath’s 22 tournament points. She fouled out with 15 points in the opening loss to Crawfordsville and started the consolation game by shooting 0-for-8 from the floor through the first three quarters. Leath finished with seven in the second game.
Crawfordsville (13-1) made a 12 point run at the end of the first quarter in game 1 to take the lead over Danville (5-8), 12-6. The Warriors answered with a seven point run of their own to take a 13-12 lead. The Athenians fired back with their own seven point run then nailed three triples to break open a 13 point advantage, 28-15, halfway through the third. Danville would close the gap to two points but, would get no closer.
“At times we will play two minutes of good basketball,” Danville coach Terry Hammons said.
“It’s been that way all year. If we can just get that consistency, it will make us a heck of a lot
better.”
It was more of the same for Danville in the consolation game. The Warriors could only muster three field goals in the first half and trailed 21-10 at halftime. However Danville outscored Zionsville (2-10) 12-6 in the third quarter to stay close. A 9-5 run by Danville brought them to within one point, 31-32 with less than a minute to play. Eagle senior Leah Einterz then hit two free-throws to seal the 34-31 Zionsville win.
In the championship game Crawfordsville senior guard Hannah Fink connected on a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first quarter to give the Athenians a 17-15 lead over Benton Central (9-4). However, Crawfordsville was unable to make a field goal in the second quarter and found themselves on the short end of a 21-18 scoreboard.
Crawfordsville found their high-low game early in the third quarter and took a 29-28 lead with under three minutes to play in the quarter. The Bison then ripped off a six point run to retake the lead.
With under a minute to play Haas called a timeout and challenged his players to play like they were capable.
“I didn’t talk to them through the first part of
that time out,” Haas said. “Then I just told them
that they were better players than this and that they had to figure out how to win this game.”
Junior Mandi Johnson answered the call and tied the game, 35-35, with a leaning three-point play in the lane. The game went back-and-forth from there. A final 10-1 Athenian run ended the host schools chance at a championship on their floor. Gasaway went 3-4 from the free throw line in the last 21 seconds to seal the game.
“I think out of the eight quarters we played, we got eight minutes total of good basketball,” Haas said.
“It’s a testament to these girls that we could not play well and still win a tournament championship.”
The tournament was plagued by poor play as Crawfordsville was the only team to score more field goals than turnovers, that feat coming in the final game. The Athenians also shot just 33.1 percent (31-for-93) for the tournament.
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