DOVER — Western Boone’s domination over the Sugar Creek Classic continues. Saturday night in the championship game against Crawfordsville, the Stars claimed their 13th Sugar Creek Classic title in 15 tries with a 48-39 victory over the Athenians.
Early on it was the Athenians who came out as the aggressors taking an 11-5 lead after the opening quarter. The Stars as they did against North Montgomery in the first round, settled in and outscored the Athenians 20-9 in the second quarter to take a 25-20 lead into the half and the Stars would never surrender the lead on their way to the championship.
Shea Williamson led all scorers in the game with 17 points for Crawfordsville and also hauled in ten rebounds. Kearston Hutchens and Elyse Widmer both had eight, and Olivia Reed had six for the Athenians in the losing effort.
“Shea did everything she could have tonight to try and help her team to a win,” Crawfordsville coach Tyler Smith said. “I couldn’t be prouder of her effort and leadership. We talked about with them about playing a complete 32 minutes and tonight I think we played a good 25 or 26, but to win championships like this you have to play a complete 32.”
The Athenians (2-4 0-1 SAC) despite coming up short for the second year in a row in the title game built some momentum this week with a 2-1 record including a dominating performance over county rival Southmont.
“Our desire to win was on a whole nother level this week,” Smith said. “There were a lot of positives this week. We feel like we’re on the upswing a little bit and moments like this are also teachable moments for us so we can learn from them later in the season with county matchups down the line.”
Western Boone coach Hannah Kelly credited the Athenians with making her squad earn a hard fought championship win.
“They did an awesome job tonight and came out really aggressive,” she said. “We knew they probably would after watching them against Southmont and it was a constant back and forth battle for most of the night. Our girls did a nice job of executing and staying with it in order to pull out the win.”
Three Stars scored in double figures. Lili Jones and Katheryn Rutherford both led the Western Boone with 13 points while Emmy Roys recorded another double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Williamson and Reed were both named to the Sugar Creek Classic All-Tournament team for the Athenians. Emmy Roys from the Stars took home the MVP for the tournament.
Crawfordsville will be back at home Tuesday night in game one of a boy girl double-header as the Athenians host Greencastle.
Western Boone 48, Crawfordsville 39
WB 5 20 7 16 — 48
CHS 11 9 4 15 — 39
Western Boone (3-0): FG-FGA FT-FTA Pts: Lili Jones 5-11 0-0 13, Sam Wynkoop 2-9 0-2 4, Carlie Pennington 2-7 3-4 7, Katheryn Rutherford 5-12 2-2 13, Emmy Roys 3-5 5-6 11
Totals 17-44 10-14 48
Crawfordsville (2-4, 0-1 SAC): Olivia Reed 1-9 3-4 6, Elyse Widmer 3-6 2-2 8, Kearston Hutchens 3-10 0-0 8, Lain Schlicher 0-1 0-0 0, Liddy McCarty 0-5 0-0 0, Shea Williamson 6-13 2-3 17, Taylor Abston 0-3 0-2
Totals 13-44 7-11 39
3 pt shooting: WB 3-11 (Jones 2, Rutherford), CHS 6-18 (Williamson 3, Hutchens 2, Reed)
Rebounding: WB 30, CHS 20
Turnovers: WB 20, CHS 16