It’s been a struggle all season for Crawfordsville girls basketball to play a complete 32-minute game. There are points where the Athenians look to be turning a corner, just to fall apart and let the game slip away. Unfortunately that scenario played itself out again Tuesday as the Athenians hosted the North Vermillion Falcons and fell 51-33.
Crawfordsville didn’t hit their first field goal until 2:10 left in the opening periowd where at the end they trailed 12-7. The second quarter Crawfordsville was able to find its rhythm and tied up the game at 18-18. Then the Falcons proceeded to score seven straight to re-gain the lead. In the final quarter as CHS trailed 40-31 the Athenians had no answers on either side of the ball scoring just two points and allowed the Falcons to pull away for the win.
“We seemed dis-interested in both the first and fourth quarters,” a frustrated Crawfordsville coach Tyler Smith said. “I’m not really sure why that’s the case. We’re running out of games and you think we’d come out on fire but we just didn’t.”
For the game the Falcons shot right at 50 percent going 23-36 went just 12-31 from the field. Shea Williamson led CHS with 13 points in the loss and also collected her 500th rebound of her career. Earlier this season she also eclipsed the 200 steal mark as well for the Athenians. 500 rebounds is something that only ten other girls have done in program history.
“Not only has there been very few girls to do it, there’s been even fewer who are her size at 5’4,” Smith said of Williamson’s accomplishment. “Her steals are also third in program history right now so to accomplish everything that she has shows her desire and how hard she plays.”
The Falcons were led in scoring by Braxtyn Dunham off the bench with 15 points. Ava Martin scored 14 and snagged nine rebounds, and Cami Pearman also scored in double figures with 12 while grabbing six boards. Dunham who is a normal starter is working her way back from an ankle injury, but that didn’t stop her from impressing Falcons coach Mark Switzer.
“Braxtyn came out ready to play and that was really good to see,” he said. “At the beginning of the year it was just Ava and Cami scoring for us and now we’ve brought other girls along like Braxtyn. They’re getting into a rhythm with their shooting and starting to really trust the coaching staff and its paying off. We’re constantly having three to four girls score for us and that’s always a great thing to have.”
The Falcons continue their impressive season and improve to 15-7 with the victory.
Crawfordsville falls to 6-15 on the year and will wrap up the regular season Friday night in the first game of a double-header against Frankfort. It will also be senior night for the Athenians.
“This group has shown that they can turn it around quickly,” Smith said. “It’s confusing still at this point in the season with some of the mistakes we’re still making, but we hope to be able to get things going in the right direction on Friday.”
North Vermillion 51, Crawfordsville 33
Score by Quarters
CHS 7 14 10 2 — 33
NV 12 15 13 11 — 44
Crawfordsville (6-15 0-6 SAC)
FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Olivia Reed 3-6 0-0 6, Kearston Hutchens 2-7 0-0 5, Lain Schlicher 1-1 0-0 2, Liddy McCarty 0-6 3-6 3, Shea Williamson 4-7 1-2 13, Taylor Abston 2-6 0-0 4; Totals 12-31 4-7 33.
North Vermillion (15-7)
Ava Martin 7-12 0-1 14, Callie Nayler 0-3 0-0 0, Braxtyn Dunham 6-8 0-0 15, Lauren Ellis 1-4 0-0 2, Cami Pearman 6-12 0-0 12, Olivia Pearman 3-9 2-7 8; Totals 23-46 2-8 51
3-Pt Shooting: Crawfordsville 5-14 (Williamson 4, Hutchens) ,
N. Vermillion 3-7 (Dunham 3)
Rebounding: Crawfordsville 27 (Abston 8, Hutchens 7, Williamson 5)
N. Vermillion 23 (Martin 9, C. Pearman 6)
Turnovers: Crawfordsville 17,
N. Vermillion 7