A quick start by Southmont led to the Mounties spoiling Crawfordsville’s senior night in a 51-43 defeat of the Athenians in girls’ basketball on Wednesday night. Southmont darted out to a 17-7 lead after one quarter, and never looked back, securing two Journal Review County Chase points and a second straight Montgomery County title. Addi Charles and Natalie Manion knocked down three consecutive 3-pointers in the first 2:14 of play to push the Mounties (6-14, 3-3) ahead 9-1 before the Athenians (2-19, 06) were able to gather themselves. Manion reached double-figures in the win with 11, while Charles added eight, all coming in the first quarter. Southmont continued to press on the gas in the second quarter, taking a 27-17 lead into halftime.
“We wanted to push the tempo, and a lot of half-court man-to-man pressure, and I thought we did really well,” Mounties coach Dustin Oakley said. “We assigned Manion to Lauren Kellerman and I think she had six at halftime. I just thought we did our assignments and executed very well with our game plan.” Crawfordsville made their biggest push in the third quarter, but the Mounties quickly responded. Kellerman nailed a 3-pointer, and Addie Laskowksi hit a free throw to cut the lead to five at 27-22 with 6:13 left in the third period, but Manion, Belle Miller, and Emma Ward responded with a bucket each to push the Mounties back ahead by double-digits. Laskowksi and Megan Simmons converted back-to-back buckets to once again cut the lead to seven, but the Athenians never got closer the rest of the way. Crawfordsville only turned the ball over 17 times compared to the Mounties 23, but only connected on 14-of-54 shots from the field. “That’s been a story of the season,” Athenians coach Tony Bean said. “I thought we created enough good looks, we just couldn’t knock them down.”
Oakley felt like the Mounties played one of their better games of the season offensively, connecting on 19-of-52 shots. “A lot of unselfishness,” he said. “I thought we pushed the ball when we need to and then made the right passes, girls going to the scoring blocks, and getting a lot of layups.” A total of six girls scored for the Mounties. Lilly Ward led the way with 13, while Belle Miller’s doubl-double included 12 points. Southmont also dominated the rebounding effort with a 49-38 advantage. Kellerman led the Athenians with 14, while Laskowski added 11. Olivia Barnett chipped in seven. Crawfordsville celebrated three seniors in Laskowski, Barnett, and Tori Tesmer. “The girls came out and played their butts off for our three seniors,” Bean said. “I mean Barnett and Laskowski played a lot tonight obviously, and gave everything they had, and Tori did too. But what I really enjoyed was everyone else playing for them, so effort wasn’t the problem tonight by any stretch.” Crawfordsville closes the regular season out on Friday at Frankfort at 6 p.m., while Southmont travels to Lebanon. Southmont 51, Crawfordsville 43 Southmont 17 10 10 14 – 51 Crawfordsville 7 11 12 13 – 43 Southmont (6-14, 3-3): Hailey France 0-1 0-0 0, Bailey Thompson 0-1 1-2 1, Emma Ward 3-12 0-1 6, Lilly Ward 5-15 3-6 13, Hannah Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Addi Charles 2-4 2-2 8, Belle Miller 6-12 0-0 12, Natalie Manion 3-7 4-7 11, Claire Remley 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 19-52 10-18 51 Crawfordsville (2-19, 0-6): Olivia Reed 1-5 0-0 2, Megan Simmons 1-2 0-0 2, Olivia Barnett 3-9 0-0 7, Lauren Kellerman 5-18 3-7 14, Tori Tesmer 0-1 0-0 0, Emma Balaz 0-1 1-2 1, Maycee York 0-3 0-1 0, Peyton Sinnet 0-0 0-0 0, Shea Williamson 1-4 4-5 6, Addie Laskowski 3-11 4-6 11, Georgia Kincaid 0-0 0-0 0; Totals 14-54 12-23 43 3-Point Shooting: Southmont 3-5 (Charles 2, Manion), Crawfordsville 3-16 (Barnett, Kellerman, Laskowski) Rebounds: Southmont 49, Crawfordsville 38 Turnovers: Southmont 23, Crawfordsville 17 Facebook Twitter Email Print