Senior Shea Williamson will look to help guide Crawfordsville to just their second Sugar Creek Classic Championship.
Athenians focused on redemption in Sugar Creek Crawfordsville girls basketball remembers the way last season’s Sugar Creek Classic ended. County rival Southmont celebrated with the trophy in hand while the Athenians went home empty after a crushing 43-37 overtime loss.
This year Crawfordsville heads into the 15th annual Sugar Creek Classic with a championship mindset and they’ll get their chance at redemption right away as they will face the Mounties in game one which is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday.
The first three games of the season were not kind to the Athenians falling to Seeger, North Putnam and Tri-West. However Tuesday night, it finally clicked for Crawfordsville as they picked up a 42-30 win over Fountain Central to build some momentum heading into Friday night.
“We definitely feel better after that win Tuesday,” Crawfordsville coach Tyler Smith said. “We’ve been circling this week on the calendar as a week in which we can build some more momentum. Sugar Creek is by far one of the best weekends of the year.”
The Athenians come in averaging just 33 points per game and giving up 55, however in a rivalry game against a county rival, stats and records go out the window.
“No matter who is favored or has the better team doesn’t matter and I think the last few years have proved that,” Smith said. “It’ll simply come down to who wants it more and most likely come down to the wire. It’s a 32-minute battle and sometimes even more.”
The Athenians like their fellow county rival opponent Southmont will be rolling out four seniors in their starting lineup. Shea Williamson in the win over Fountain Central recorded a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Along with fellow seniors Olivia Reed, Kearston Hutchens, and Liddy McCarty, then add sophomore Taylor Abston and the Athenians won’t be lacking experience come Friday night.
“This is the last Classic that many of these girls will play in,” Smith said. “Knowing how close we’ve been in the past we want to do everything we can to send them off with a championship in this. We’ll have to go out and earn it for sure but hopefully it serves as motivation to do whatever it takes to get a win Friday night and go from there.”