Tigers march to title game of Henryville tournament

By ARV KOONTZ
akoontz@tribtown.com

MEDORA - When coach Andrew Nehrt was preparing his Crothersville girls basketball team for the Henryville Tip-Off Tournament he was hoping the Tigers could win their pool and have a chance to play for the championship.
The Tigers are right where Nehrt hoped they would be following a 75-20 win over Medora Friday night.
After running past Trinity Lutheran earlier in the week, the Tigers are 2-0 and will play Madison Shawe at 8 p.m. today at Henryville for the title.
"One thing with Madison Shawe, in watching them play last season and again Thursday night, is they really like to get out and run the floor," Nehrt said. "One thing we're going have to do is we're going to have to get back to eliminate any easy, fastbreak lay ups and that is something I know John (Kalb, Shawe coach) has worked on, getting those girls out and making them run.
"Our work is containing their fast break, and also we're going to have to pressure the ball in the half-court."
The Tigers dominated the Hornets from the start by scoring the first 25 points of the game before Kelsey McCammon scored a basket for Medora at 1:45 of the first period.
Crothersville shot 13-for-21 from the floor in the first period, while Medora made 1 of 4 shots and turned the ball over 16 times, resulting in a 33-2 score.
"We wanted to get out and let the varsity players play for basically a quarter, and then let them have the night off before we have to play (tonight)," Nehrt said. "They came out and played hard that first quarter, and I was really proud of our JV squad. They played real well the rest of the game."
Medora coach Brad McCammon said his team needs to be ready to play from the start.  "The thing we've got to get used to, and as a young team it's hard to understand, is coming out game-ready in the first half. Once again we were sluggish, we didn't get back on defense, we didn't take care of the basketball, and Crothersville is an excellent team and they put a lot of pressure on the ball. They were skilled enough that they didn't have to go full-court. They did a lot of nice, half-court things.

"We're having a little difficulty understanding when we miss a shot our next assignment is to get back. We want to stand and either try to swat at the ball or think we're going to get a steal and 90 percent of the time that's not going to happen."

He said the guards need to get back on defense and prevent opponents from getting easy lay ups. McCammon also said his team needs to work on positioning on rebounding.

"Every position on the floor needs to work at getting better," he said. "That's why you play them one at a time and try to get better each quarter. You've just got to set goals that they can attain."

Nehrt played his starters only long enough (5 minutes) to build up a 19-0 lead, then rested them remainder of the night.

Crothersville held a 50-6 lead at intermission.

Ashley Allen topped the Tigers in scoring with 20 points, Carley Schoenfelder scored 13 and Kayla Barnett 10. Allen also topped the Tigers in rebound with 14 and Schoenfelder had 9.

Emy Thomas was high scorer for Medora with 6 points, and had 12 rebounds.

Medora will play in the fifth-place game at 4 p.m. today, Trinity Lutheran will play in the third-place game at 6 p.m., and the finals are scheduled for 8 p.m.
Box Score

Crothersville 33 17 8 17-75
Medora 2 4 4 10-20
CHS (2-0)- Luedeman 2 0-0 4, Killey 3 2-2 8, Lucas 2 1-1 5, Prather 1 0-0 2, Schmelzle 0 3-4 3, Meadows 2 0-0 4, Barnett 3 2-2 10, Maxie 2 0-2 6, Allen 8 4-8 20, Schoenfelder 6 1-2 13, Hensley 0 0-0 0, Hoskins 0 0-0 0, totals 29-61 13-21 75.
MHS (0-2)- Norklun 1 0-0 2, Ball 2 0-0 4, Fisher 1 2-5 4, Cyrus 1 0-2 2, McCammon 1 0-0 2, E. Thomas 3 0-2 6, T. Thomas 0 0-0 0, totals 9-53 2-9 20.
Rebounds: Crothersville 42 (Allen 14, Schoenfelder 9, Hoskins 8), Medora 42 (E. Thomas 12), turnovers: Crothersville 7, Medora 33; fouls: Crothersville 11, Medora 15.