CROTHERSVILLE
Crothersville held a 41-38 lead on Medora through three quarters and remained ahead throughout the fourth quarter for a 55-51 win between sectional opponents on the Tigers’ floor Tuesday night.
A 3-point basket by Josh Thomas put the Tigers on top 46-38 before the Hornets closed 50-47 midway through the quarter.
The Tigers took a 5-0 lead at the beginning of the game on an offensive rebound by Zane Elliott. The Hornets came charging back and moved on top 21-15 at the end of the first period. Hunter Browning had the hot hand for the Hornets by making two 3-pointers and 12 points in the period, while Brandon Moore and Gavin Henson added 3-pointers.
Medora increased its lead to 31-21 on a 3-pointer by Henson at the 4:32 mark of the second period.
The Tigers (7-15) picked it up on offense as Noah Hoskins made a steal and layup, and added a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the half to tie the score at 31-31.
Tigers coach Greg Kilgore told his team at half time that it needed to do a better job of working the ball inside during the second half.
“Once we did that and got ourselves back into the game and got a lead and he came out of the zone and had to play man and they had a hard time matching up with us man to man,” Kilgore said.
Hornets coach Mark Morin said he felt like the Hornets missed some opportunities to take an even bigger lead.
“We had a chance when we were up 10 to extend our lead, and we missed some shots that could have extended our lead but we let them go on a 10-0 run and tie it up, but we hung in there,” he said. “I think we’ve come a long way. They had beaten us by 37 earlier, and we got beat four. We’re pretty disappointed. We expected to win.”
Morin said the two main factors were turnovers and rebounds.
Medora had 16 turnovers, and the Tigers had nine, and the Tigers held a 33-22 advantage in rebounds.
The Hornets made six 3-pointers and shot 11-for-24 in the first half, while the Tigers made three 3-pointers and shot 10-for-32 in the first half.
Thomas topped the Tigers with 19 points and 9 rebounds and Noah Hoskins and Conner O’Sullivan scored 12 points each.
“I really respect this team because not too many teams start out 0-15 and keep chugging along. This team has come a long way in a short time,” Morin said.
Browning topped the Hornets (3-18) with 19 points, Brandon Moore had 17, and J.D. Fish topped the Hornets in rebounds with nine.
“They made some shots and we failed to make some shots,” Morin said. “When they built a 10-point lead, we were settling for 3-pointers too much. We hit our first one the first trip down the floor, and a lot of times, that can be fool’s gold. We think we’re going to make 3s against the zone, and it doesn’t always work that way.”