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Photo provided by Joe Boswell
Crawfordsville coach Darren Haas led the Athenians to their first IHSAA regional title Saturday night. |
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Photo provided by Joe Boswell
Crawfordsville junior Kylie Justus (right) defends Rushville’s Morgan Herbert. |
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| WHAT: IHSAA Southport Girls Basketball Semistate
WHO: Class 3A No. 6 Crawfordsville (23-2) vs. Class 3A No. 10 Owen Valley (23-2)
WHEN: Saturday
WHERE: Southport High School, 971 E Banta Rd., Indianapolis, IN
TICKETS: $7
ADVANCEMENT: The winner advances to the March 7 IHSAA State finals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Girls basketball
Saturday
IHSAA Mount Vernon (Fortville) Regional
At Mount Vernon (Fortville) HS
Championship
Crawfordsville 58, Rushville 51
Crawfordsville 15 18 6 19 – 58
Rushville 11 18 4 18 – 51
Scoring:
Crawfordsville – Lexi Stevens 6-9 9-12 26, Kylie Justus 1-6 0-0 2,
Mandi Johnson 8-14 5-9 22, Alex Gasaway 2-8 3-4 8, Betty Elliott 0-0
0-0 0, Katy Conklin 0-0 0-0 0, Haley Grundy 0-0 0-0 0, Courtney
Hamilton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-37 17-24 58. Rushville – Krista Beaman
0-2 1-2 1, Morgan Herbert 2-11 5-7 9, Kaleigh Andrews 1-4 1-2 4,
Shelbie Justice 5-16 6-9 17, Alexa Bess 5-10 2-2 16, Meagan Hittle 1-3
0-0 2, Kayla Niehoff 1-1 0-0 2, Brooke Edwards 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 15-47
15-21 51.
Three-point shooting: Crawfordsville 7-16 (Stevens
5-8, Justus 0-3, Johnson 1-2, Gasaway 1-3), Rushville 6-14 (Herbert
0-4, Andrews 1-1, Justice 1-3, Bess 4-6),
Rebounds: Crawfordsville 30 (Johnson 8, Gasaway 8, Stevens 5), Rushville 24 (Justice 8)
Fouls: Crawfordsville 15, Rushville 19
Fouled out: Bess R
Turnovers: Crawfordsville 12, Rushville 8
Records: Crawfordsville 23-2, Rushville 17-5
Girls basketball
IHSAA Mount Vernon (Fortville) Regional
Saturday
At Mount Vernon (Fortville) HS
Semifinals
Game 1
Crawfordsville 56, Batesville 50
Batesville 17 5 13 15 – 50
Crawfordsville 12 11 18 15 – 56
Scoring:
Batesville – Ashley Wuestefeld 4-13 3-5 11, Amy Wuestefeld 2-8 2-2 6,
Jenny Meyer 1-2 5-6 7, Madison Lamppert 4-9 2-2 10, Elise Stephens 1-3
0-2 2, Julie Meyer 0-1 0-0 0, Fawn Ryan 0-7 6-12 6, Lawson Sitterding
3-8 0-0 8, Erin Lanning 0-0 0-0 0, Carley Paul 0-0 0-0 0, Becca Wintz
0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 15-51 18-29 50. Crawfordsville – Lexi Stevens 1-3
4-4 7, Kylie Justus 3-5 0-1 6, Mandi Johnson 8-21 1-3 18, Alex Gasaway
4-6 2-4 10, Betty Elliott 4-8 0-0 8, Haley Grundy 1-1 0-1 2, Courtney
Hamilton 2-3 1-3 5, Katy Conklin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-47 8-16 56.
Three-point
shooting: Batesville 2-9 (As. Wuestefeld 0-3, Am. Wuestefeld 0-2,
Sitterding 2-4), Crawfordsville 2-8 (Stevens 1-3, Justus 0-1, Johnson
1-3, Gasaway 0-1)
Rebounds: Batesville 39 (Ryan 10, Lamppert 8, As. Wuestefeld 5, Stephens 5), Crawfordsville 30 (Johnson 8, Elliott 7, Gasaway 5)
Fouls: Batesville 18, Crawfordsville 19
Fouled out: Elliott C
Turnovers: Batesville 22, Crawfordsville 23
Records: Crawfordsville 22-2, Batesville 21-2
Game 2
Rushville 48, Batesville 44
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Reprinted courtesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com
By John Groth
Sports Editor
FORTVILLE
– Moments after winning their first Indiana High School Athletic
Association regional girls basketball title, Lexi Stevens tried to join
the celebration on the Crawfordsville bench.
She only made it halfway there.
Junior Kylie Justus picked up the 5-foot, 7-inch senior point guard and wrapped her in a bear hug.
Stevens was secure – late in the game and in her teammate’s arms.
Stevens
scored a game-high 26 points, hitting 9-of-12 free throws in the final
two minutes of the fourth quarter, to lift Class 3A No. 6
Crawfordsville to a 58-51 victory over Class 3A co-No. 8 Rushville in
Saturday night’s IHSAA Mount Vernon (Fortville) Regional championship
game.
After winning their first IHSAA sectional title last weekend, the Athenians netted the school’s first regional title.
“It’s
amazing,” said Stevens, who also hit 5-of-8 three-point attempts.
“Coach [Darren] Haas said ‘get the ball to Lexi.’ I say anybody can
shoot free throws. It just happened to be me tonight . . . I didn’t
feel any responsibility [to score]. Some games it’s not my role to
score. Some games it is, and tonight was one.”
Crawfordsville
(23-2) will play Class 3A No. 10 Owen Valley (23-2) in this Saturday’s
IHSAA Southport Semistate. Owen Valley upset Class 3A No. 3 Vincennes
Lincoln 75-53 in Saturday’s IHSAA Jasper Regional championship game.
Crawfordsville
and Owen Valley will play in the 1 p.m. opening game, while Class 4A
No. 1 Ben Davis (28-0) and Class 4A No. 7 Mooresville (23-1) will meet
in the second game to follow.
Winners advance to the March 7 IHSAA State finals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Haas was taken aback at the historical significance, especially after defeating Rushville (17-5).
Rushville
has won 26 IHSAA sectional titles, including a state-record 18-straight
from 1980 to 1997, and nine IHSAA regional championships overall.
Crawfordsville just earned its first of each this month.
“Rushville
is the number one girls program in the state of Indiana for sectional
titles,” Haas said. “Crawfordsville is at the very bottom. I only have
one. Rushville has 26 titles. They’re a program rich in history.
Crawfordsville now has one sectional and one regional title.”
Crawfordsville
had just four players score – Stevens, senior Mandi Johnson (22),
junior Alex Gasaway (eight) and junior Kylie Justus (two) – but that’s
all the Athenians needed.
They held off rally after rally by Rushville, including two late scoring flurries in the final minute.
Crawfordsville
led 47-40 with 4:30 remaining but the Lions scored six straight points
over the next two minutes to cut the lead to 47-46.
Stevens and Haas had an answer.
Crawfordsville
got her the ball and she scored the Athenians’ final 11 points, hitting
a key two-pointer and then nine free throws in the final 1:02, to lift
them to the win.
Even after Rushville cut the lead to 53-51 with 27.7 seconds remaining, the Athenians remained poised.
Stevens, an 80-percent free-throw shooter, hit two. Then Crawfordsville forced a turnover and she was fouled.
Stevens
hit her first free throw to make it 56-51, missed the second, but
Justus grabbed the offensive rebound and got it back to Stevens, who
was fouled again.
“I knew we had to get the ball in Lexi’s
hands,” Haas said. “When we take it out of her hands, it’s led to
problems. She was feeling it from three-point range.”
Shelbie
Justus led Rushville with 17 points, while Alexa Bess, who fouled out,
added 16. They combined to go 5-of-9 from the outside.
“The intensity was so high at so many levels tonight,” Haas said. “It was unbeliveable.”
Crawfordsville
defeated Class 3A No. 12 Batesville 56-50 in the regional semifinals.
Rushville defeated Roncalli 48-44 in the second semifinal.
CHS rallies to defeat Batesville
Crawfordsville almost faded away in the fourth quarter in its opening regional semifinal.
But Gasaway gutted out an illness and foul trouble to help Athenians recover.
She
scored nine of her 10 points in the fourth quarter to lead
Crawfordsville to a 56-50 victory over Class 3A No. 12 Batesville.
Crawfordsville trailed by four with 4:17 to play but outscored Batesville 12-2 over the final half of the fourth quarter.
“In
the fourth quarter, [coach Haas] said he needed me to play or we’d
lose,” Gasaway said. “When he gets stern, and with the game on the
line, I know I have to pick it up.”
Johnson led Crawfordsville with 18 points, but Gasaway provided the team with an enormous lift with her key fourth quarter.
Crawfordsville led 44-38 with 6:15 remaining before committing six straight turnovers – five off inbounds passes.
Batesville
went on a 10-0 run, scoring points off five of those turnovers, and
rallied to take a 48-44 lead with 4:17 remaining.
The Athenians answered with Gasaway inside.
She
scored three straight baskets – one off transition and two off
jumpshots – to give Crawfordsville a 50-48 lead with 2:18 remaining.
Then,
with Batesville down by four and inbounding a pass, Gasaway made a
steal and hit a lay-up to give the Athenians a 54-48 lead with 1:02
left.
She did all of this despite being saddled on the bench
with foul trouble (picking up her fourth foul just 40 seconds into the
third quarter) and battling a stomach illness most of the game. |
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