Tigers go 1-2 in tourney games

AUSTIN - The Crothersville Tigers were looking for a turnaround on Monday night.

After losing to the New Washington Mustangs in a pool play game of the Christian Academy Tournament at Austin on Monday afternoon, the Tigers returned that night to put on a good performance to defeat Columbus Christian.

Mustangs run by Tigers

Things didn't look too bad after one quarter of play in the first game. Crothersville was only down 13-12 after eight minutes.

In the second quarter, the teams traded baskets before New Washington went on a 7-0 run, capped off with Drake Krohn's 3-pointer with 5 seconds left in the half to lead 28-21.

The Tigers came out after the half and only made 1 of 13 field goal attempts. The Mustangs only shot 3-for-11, but held the 11-point lead after three.

Harley Hensley's 3-pointer at 4:49 in the fourth quarter got the Tigers within eight points, but that's the closest his team would get the rest of the game.

The Mustangs scored eight straight points and later had back-to-back 3-point plays from Vincent Minton and Devin Freels in the fourth for the 57-41 win.

"I think we missed 15 layups," Tigers coach Jim Stewart said of the game. "That was the story of the first game."

The Tigers shot 12-for-53 from the field and 15-for-25 from the free throw line in the game, while the Mustangs were 22-for-50 and 9-for-17.

Hensley made two 3-pointers, a field goal and was 9-for-10 from the free throw line to lead all scorers in the game with 17. Cody Brasher ended with 14 points.

For the Mustangs, Minton contributed 15 points, and Freels had 12.

"I thought the first game we had as good of an effort as we've had all year," Stewart said. "But we missed shots and we made a few mistakes. But it seemed like if we made one, it cost us. We just didn't have anything to show for it.
"When you miss 15 layups, you don't know what the score might have been."

Tigers gain early lead over Crusaders

In the second game, however, the Tigers were ready from the get-go.

Brasher had two 3-pointers and a 3-point play in the first quarter, with his final trey giving the Tigers a 15-2 lead, and Crothersville jumped out to a 17-4 first-quarter advantage.

Derek Roth scored the Crusaders' two field goals in the second quarter, and he and Baxter Binnion each got a free throw, but Columbus Christian found themselves down 35-10 at the break. The Tigers had five players score in the second quarter, with Tim Steinbach leading with six and Cameron Royalty putting up five.

At the half, the Crusaders had 12 turnovers, compared to the Tigers' four.

"The New Washington team sometimes took us out of our offense with their defensive pressure," Stewart said. "When you get out of your offense, you don't shoot very well. Because of their pressure, we had a lot of backdoor cuts and a lot of easy shots and we didn't make them."

In the Columbus Christian game, Stewart said, the Tigers were more effective on offense. 

Steinbach's field goal at 2:45 in the third gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the game, 41-17, but the Crusaders outscored the Tigers 16-11 in the quarter.

Leading by 20 going into the final period, the Tigers were able to maintain their lead to the end. Anthony Martin came off the bench and scored seven of his nine points in the fourth, and Hensley scored six of his eight points.

Brasher had a double-double for the Tigers with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Steinbach was next with 12 points, and Cameron Royalty had 11.

Kyle Roth and Derek Roth each finished with 10 points for the Crusaders.

After the second game, Brasher said, "We came in confident knowing that we could beat that team. It's all mental, and we have to do it ourselves. Coach can't help us. Each individual has to be mentally tough and play and we can win.
"Coach told us to make sure that we ran our offense and also give 110 percent and play our game and not their game, because that's what we've been doing in the past couple of games. We just have to be confident and know what to do and listen to our coaches. We've got to keep it up."

The Tigers' rebounding was also solid in both games, and Steinbach had 11 in both games.

"We haven't lost on the boards all year, but sometimes it doesn't make any difference," Stewart said.

The final round of the Christian Academy Tournament will be today at New Albany. Crothersville will play Christian Academy for fifth place at 3 p.m.

So far, the Tigers are 1-2 after defeating Columbus Christian and losing to New Washington on Monday, and they lost to Austin on Saturday.

"The things that went wrong Saturday, I thought we corrected (on Monday)," Stewart said. "But we didn't hit the layups (in the first game). We just aren't convinced we are going to win the others. As soon as we believe, we will be all right.
"When we played Rock Creek the second game of the year (Dec. 6) and we had the lead and the ball with 31 seconds and we turned it over and lost, we have not been the same team since. And how long it will take to be the same team again, I don't know.
"We just have to get our brain to where we believe we are going to win. It's that simple."

Box scores

At Austin
New Wash. 13 15 11 18-57
Crothersville 12 9 7 13-41
Crothersville (1-7): Hensley 3-13 9-10 17, Elliott 0-4 2-2 2, Lemen 0-2 1-2 1, Steinbach 3-9 0-2 6, Royalty 0-8 0-1 0, Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Martin 0-7 1-4 1, Brasher 6-10 2-4 14, totals 12-53 15-25 41.
New Washington (8-0): Minton 5-11 3-3 15, Krohn 2-2 0-0 5, Freels 5-11 2-5 12, Ramer 0-1 0-0 0, Wiggam 4-6 0-2 8, Bowman 2-5 0-0 5, Radford 1-1 0-0 2, Hobbs 2-4 3-4 7, Jones 1-5 1-2 3, Bower 0-2 0-1 0, Hughes 0-2 0-0 0, totals 22-50 9-17 57.
3-point goals: C 2-11 (Hensley 2-4, Elliott 0-1, Lemen 0-1, Steinbach 0-1, Royalty 0-3, Martin 0-1), NW 4-14 (Minton 2-5, Bowman 1-3, Krohn 1-1, Freels 0-3, Ramer 0-1, Bower 0-1).
Rebounds: C 32 (Steinbach 11, Brasher 7), NW 30 (Minton 14, Hughes 4); Turnovers: C 21, NW 20; Fouls: C 20, NW 23.

Columbus Chr. 4 6 16 15-41
Crothersville 17 18 11 18-64
Crothersville (2-7): Hensley 4-6 0-0 8, Elliott 2-7 0-1 5, Steinbach 5-9 1-4 12, Walker 0-1 0-0 0, Royalty 4-11 3-3 11, Martin 4-9 0-0 9, Brasher 5-10 2-4 14, Lucas 0-2 1-2 1, Lewis 2-4 0-0 4, totals 26-59 7-14 64.
Columbus Christian (7-7): J. Harvey 0-0 0-0 0, Andes 1-7 2-2 4, Mathis 1-8 1-2 3, G. Harvey 2-6 1-2 5, K. Roth 4-8 2-3 10, Binnion 2-7 1-2 5, Wright 0-3 0-2 0, Morrison 2-4 0-1 4, D. Roth 4-6 2-4 10, Axsom 0-1 0-2 0, totals 16-50 9-20.
3-point goals: C 5-9 (Brasher 2-2, Steinbach 1-2, Elliott 1-2, Martin 1-1, Hensley 0-1, Royalty 0-1), CC 0-6 (Andes 0-2, Mathis 0-2, K. Roth 0-2).
Rebounds: C 31 (Brasher 10, Steinbach 6), CC 25 (D. Roth 9, Mathis 4); Turnovers: C 16, CC 19; Fouls: C 18, CC 14.