For The Tribune
CROTHERSVILLE
Coach Greg Kilgore said the key to his Crothersville boys’ basketball team beating Southwestern (Hanover) on Saturday night was being able to control the tempo.
“We talked all week about speeding them up, the pressing game full-court and half-court trap both, speeding them up and getting them to play our tempo,” he said. We told the kids we needed to get into the 60s and 70s, and we did.”
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The Tigers came away with a 64-51 homecoming win.
“We made them speed up, and they had some uncharacteristic turnovers, but we did too,” Kilgore said. “I like this pace we’re playing, but we’ve got to cut some of these turnovers out. If we play this pace and have 14 turnovers a game, I can live with that. But 23, we’ve got to cut several of those out.”
Kilgore liked the balanced scoring, as four Tigers scored between 11 and 15 points with a different player stepping up to lead the attack at different times.
In the first period, it was Dakota Mount who carried the load. The Tigers had two turnovers and missed their first four shots that allowed the Rebels to lead 6-0. Eli Mollet scored on a power move to the basket at 3:35 to get the Tigers’ offense started, and Mount followed with a 3-pointer, a 2-point basket and 3 free throws to put CHS on top 10-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Connor Adams got hot in the second period with a pair of 3-point baskets, including converting a 4-point play. Micah Mains and Tyler Luedeman also hit 3s to spark the Tigers to a 34-21 lead at the half.
Mollet made a pair of baskets and 3 free throws in the third period when the Tiger outscored the Rebels 14-10 to take a 48-31 lead into the fourth period.
Adams and Mollet both had two field goals, and Mains scored 5 points to help the Tigers maintain a comfortable lead. A lay up by Mollet with 7 minutes remaining gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the night, 52-32.
Mollet scored 15 points, Mains and Mount had 13 apiece and Adams finished with 11 points.
“We won two this weekend, but we’ve also won 3 out of 4,” Kilgore said. “We’ve stepped the pace up, obviously. Another kid that has stepped up is (Micah) Mains. He plays with a lot of energy and has gotten some steals and made some free throws. Mains and Mount will give you everything they’ve got and everybody else kind of feeds off those two.”
Colton Shepherd and Coleman Jones topped the Rebels in scoring with 12 points each.
“We won two games this weekend, and I don’t think either (Southwestern or Cannelton) are world-beaters, but we are improving,” Kilgore said. “I don’t think Southwestern (1-12) is a bad team. They play hard. They’ve played some teams tough, and they’ll be good in a year or two.”
Schoenfelder was named homecoming king and Cassidy Mantz was named homecoming queen on the night.
The Tigers (4-11) host West Washington tomorrow.