The Crothersville boys basketball team failed to pick up a victory Tuesday at the one-day McKee Munk Invitational at Henryville High School.
In the first game, the Tigers failed to score a field goal in the third quarter en route to a 45-27 loss to Henryville.
Crothersville was able to keep the game close in the opening four minutes as Tyler Luedeman scored a basket to narrow the deficit to 6-5.
Four points by the Hornets’ Nick Walker and a basket by Elijah Weeks at the first- quarter buzzer gave Henryville a 12-5 lead after eight minutes of play.
Behind a pair of threes, Collyn Claywell would account for six of the Tigers’ 10 points in the quarter, but Crothersville trailed the Hornets 28-15 at halftime.
Henryville went on a 12-0 run to open the third quarter with four different scorers.
Codi McDonald sank a pair of free throws, and Claywell and Eli Mollet split their shots at the charity stripe to account for the Tigers’ points in the third.
Up 43-19 heading into the final eight minutes, the Hornets cruised as they punched their ticket to the championship game.
“I think we need to attack more and be more aggressive,” Tigers coach Greg Kilgore said of the offensive woes. “We’ve become so obsessed with avoiding turnovers and forgetting to be aggressive. We need to shoot more.
“We only had 53 field goal attempts between the two games. We should have 45 to 50 each game. We need to get more shots up and get more guys involved. Eli is carrying the load for us scoring wise. We need to get some of the other kids chipping-in more.”
Mollet let the Tigers with 14 points and Claywell added seven.
Thomas Green topped Henryville’s scoring with 15 points.
“I really thought we weren’t ready to compete in the first game,” Kilgore said. “We did a much better job of matching Hauser’s intensity in the second game, even though the outcome was similar. I thought we were flat and not ready to start. We didn’t look to score at all.”
In the consolation round, the Tigers kept it close with Hauser before a third quarter letdown in a 67-50 loss.
The Jets led 29-22 at halftime, but outscored Crothersville 32-17 in the third for a 61-39 advantage into the fourth quarter.
“That third quarter they came out shooting the ball,” Kilgore said. “They lost to Southwestern (in the early game) against a 1-2-2, and Hauser hit a shot.
“We contended with them besides the third quarter. We have to learn to better match intensity for four solid quarters, playing 32 minutes. This is the third game where we’ve played just three good quarters. I think if we can put four good quarters together we can compete with some teams down the road.”
Crothersville outscored Hauser 11-6 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to spark a comeback win.
Mollet led the Tigers again with 28 points and Micah Mains chipped-in 13. Both Mollet and Mains finished with eight rebounds, but the Jets won the battle of the boards 31-28.
Hauser’s Conner Wilson sank five 3-pointers in the contest and led Hauser with 19 points while Zach Gearhart added 15.
Crothersville (1-9) will play at the South Ripley Tournament on Dec. 29 and 30.