Crawfordsville and Western Boone squared off in Sagamore Conference match up on Tuesday as the game was bumped up from its original Thursday time due to incoming weather. The always physical Stars kept things within reach and had their deficit down to five to begin the third quarter at 25-20. After a quick timeout, the Athenians increased their lead back up to 10 to start the final quarter and were able to cruise in the final period to a 56-39 win.
“With WeBo’s culture they always play hard and credit Coach Oakley for getting his kids to battle on the road,” Crawfordsville coach David Pierce said. “I feel like we didn’t come ready to go at the start of the third and the guys were able to rally after we called a timeout. We felt like we could speed the game up a little bit and get out and run and that was able to pay off for us.”
Alex Kellerman and Ian Hensley led the Athenians in the win with 17 points each. Kellerman scored 10 of his 17 in the final quarter to help CHS pull away.
Garrett Morton led the Stars (4-11 1-6 SAC) with 11 points and Kaden Bennington added nine. Stars coach Dustin Oakley wasn’t pleased with how his team defended the Athenians when they did get out and run, and mentioned how that factored in to the loss.
“It was just very poor tonight,” Oakley said of his team’s transition defense. “It just felt like every time we had a big basket, they’d run down, make a couple of passes and finish. It was kind of demoralizing for us in that aspect and maybe we were celebrating a bit too much on a make. It wasn’t a lack of effort just really a lack of focus that cost us tonight.”
For the second time in the Athenians last three games, Kellerman has led the team in the scoring column. Pierce mentioned how the senior and others are starting to find their rhythm as the season progresses.
“He’s playing well right now and he’s been a big reason we’ve been able to grind out these wins.” Pierce said of Kellerman. “We’re 12-4 because of guys like Alex who are just tough kids. Ian had a good game but was frustrated with how he played and he still scored 17. That shows the standard we have for both of those guys. Gavin Kenny also really stood out to me tonight. He had a few steals and picked some nice assists and is giving us great minutes.”
WeBo is currently battling a few injuries and they suffered another blow when starting guard Elliot Young left the game with an injury. Oakley did like the competitive fight his team showed against the tough Athenians, but also noted how difficult it was to keep up on offense.
“They simply made more shots than us,” he said. “56 points against that team is a little more than we’d like to give up because we just don’t have the fire power on offense to keep up with that with two of our guys out. We did show more confidence in that third quarter but we were mixing in a lot of new guys with new roles and that got to us a little bit. We just weren’t mentally tough enough tonight to put 32 minutes together.”
The Stars are scheduled to take on Clinton Central on Saturday at home beginning at 2:30.
The Athenians improve to 12-4 (3-2 SAC) and will host Riverton Parke also on Saturday afternoon.
Crawfordsville 56, Western Boone 39
Score By Quarter
CHS 13 12 12 19 — 56
WB 7 9 11 12 — 39
Crawfordsville (12-4 3-2 SAC)
FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Ziair Morgan 1-6 2-2 5, Alex Kellerman 7-13 0-0 17, Ian Hensley 6-10 2-2 17, Gavin Kenny 2-3 0-0 5, Drake Burris 0-1 0-0 0, Cale Coursey 0-4 1-2 1, Alex Hernandez 1-3 1-1 3, Mekhi Wallace 3-4 0-0 6, Kaiden Underwood 0-1 0-0 0, Tyson Fuller 1-1 0-0 2; Totals: 21-50 6-8 56
Western Boone (4-11, 1-6 SAC)
Seth McClaskey 2-7 0-0 5, Garrett Morton 4-13 2-4 11, Kaden Bennington 2-4 4-4 9, Elliot Young 2-5 1-2 6, Levi LaGrange 1-3 0-0 2, Josiah Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Blake Miller 0-1 0-0 0, Corbin Jones 1-4 2-6 4; Totals: 13-43 9-16 39
3-Point Shooting: Crawfordsville 8-24 (Kellerman 3, Hensley 3, Morgan, Kenny), Western Boone 4-16 (McClaskey, Morton, Young, Bennington)
Rebounds: Crawfordsville 34 (Hernandez 8, Wallace 8) Western Boone 25 (Jones 8 Morton 6)
Turnovers: Crawfordsville 13, Western Boone 13