After the girls picked up a win, it was time for the much anticipated season opener for the Crawfordsville boys.
The Athenian defense came to play in their first game of the season holding the Tiger Cubs to just 32 points as Crawfordsville cruised to 52-32 win to start the year.
Greencastle started the game just 2-11 from the field and shot just 30 percent for the game.
Crawfordsville coach David Pierce was pleased with how his team came out to start their 2021 campaign.
“It’s can be difficult when you play defense that hard to have that same energy on the other end,” he said. “Our opened the opportunity for us to really just chip away on the offensive end. They were getting stop after stop and we were able to build a lead because of that. To hold them to 11 points at halftime, I was super pleased.”
Ian Hensley got the offense going in the third quarter and led the Athenians with 16 points in the game. Ziair Morgan added in 11 and Cale Coursey nine. In total Crawfordsville had seven different players score in the game.
“Offensively I was pleased with how patient we were trying to score,” Pierce said. “I don’t think we took many bad shots. That shows the wisdom and maturity of our senior class. We distributed the ball very well and that led to those good shots. We wanted to shoot a little better than what we did but as long as we play defense that way, then we’ll be alright.”
Keifer Wilson led the Tiger Cubs with 10 points and Evan Alexander added in nine.
Crawfordsville (1-0) will host Benton Central Saturday and Pierce knows his team played strong defense in this first win, but will be put to the test against the Bison.
“It’s hard at the 3A level to play defense that well consistently,” he said. “Saturday will be a challenge for us. They (Benton Central) are talented and fast so we’ll have to make some adjustment to handle that talent. We’re going to have our hands full for sure.”
Crawfordsville 52, Greencastle 32
CHS 11 11 15 15 — 52
GC 6 5 8 13 — 32
Crawfordsville (1-0)
FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Ian Hensley 5-12 4-6 16, Ziair Morgan 4-9 2-3 11, Cale Coursey 4-8 0-1 9, Mekhi Wallace 2-2 2-4 6, Alex Hernandez 2-3 1-4 4, Drake Burris 1-2 0-0 3, Gavin Kenny 1-3 0-0 2, Ethan McLemore 0-2 0-0 0; Totals 19-44 9-18 52
Greencastle (0-1)
Keifer Wilson 3-10 4-7 10, Evan Alexander 3-11 0-0 9, Cole Hutcheson 2-4 2-2 6, Anthony Adams 2-3 0-0 4, Tyler Rodgers 1-4 0-0 3, Holton Miller 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 11-37 6-9 32
3 point shooting: CHS 5-16 (Hensley 2, Morgan, Coursey, Burris), GC 3-16 (Alexander 2, Rodgers)
Rebounds: CHS 31, GC 25
Turnovers: CHS 10, GC 18