Lady Tigers defeat Eagles

CROTHERSVILLE - Courtney Killey and Amber Lucas recorded double-doubles and the Crothersville Lady Tigers outrebounded Lanesville 34-13 in Monday night's Southern Athletic Conference win at Crothersville.

The 77-53 victory moves the Tigers' season record to 11-3 overall and 4-0 in the SAC, while the Eagles are 1-11, 0-4.

The game was competitive in the first quarter, but Crothersville led 20-19 at the end of one.

The Eagles came out in the second quarter and tried to slow the tempo, but it didn't end up working to their advantage as they were outscored 23-8 and were down 43-27 at the half.

"I think Lanesville just came out and hit an outstanding amount of shots," Tigers coach Andrew Nehrt said, as the Eagles shot 8-for-10 in the first quarter. "I guess as your record continues to improve, you're the target for everybody and everybody's going to give you their best game, and I thought Lanesville came in and played a very good basketball game.
"They shot the lights out in the first quarter, and we had to extend our defensive pressure a little bit and try to put some more pressure on the ball and try and take away some of their cuts and stuff."

The Tigers' 10-0 run in the second quarter began when Kylie Hensley sank a 3-pointer and ended when Lanesville's Ashley Schoen made the Eagles' first field goal at 3:39.

Amber Lucas had 17 of her 24 points in the first half, Courtney Killey had 10 and Hensley had eight to lead the Tigers, who didn't have any turnovers in the first half.

"(Lanesville) sunk back in a zone and they let us handle the ball on the top, so really we shouldn't have any turnovers and we shouldn't have any unforced errors like that," Nehrt said. "Give the girls credit. It's still girls high school basketball, and to play that long without any turnovers is an outstanding achievement for us."

The teams shot a combined 11-for-30 in the third quarter, but the Tigers maintained the 56-40 lead after three.

All five Crothersville starters scored in the fourth quarter, and Erin Schmelzle came off the bench and made a bucket under the basket at 3:09 to give the Tigers a 66-49 lead. Denise Maxie made two free throws at 1:18 for the Tigers' final scoring of the night.

Lucas finished with a game-high 24 points for the Tigers, and she pulled down 10 rebounds. Killey had 16 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Brooke Prather contributed 15 points, and Hensley scored 13.

"We have said all year long that we are capable of all five (starters) averaging double figures in a game," Nehrt said. "Having four in double figures just shows that we're spreading it around and doing the things we need to do."

Killey said Nehrt having the team focus on intensity has helped.

"He really pounds it in to us to be intense, and in order to do what we want to do in sectionals, in practice we just go as hard as we can because it may not be fun during practice, but in the long run it's going to help," Killey said.

Nehrt added, "Killey's really started going after some offensive glass. She's really been helping us out there, and she's very athletic and she leaps well and she moves well so she's really sparked us in our offensive rebounding efforts."

The game plan of looking into the post worked, Nehrt said. "Amber is turning into being a dead-solid post player, and we've consciously started focusing on trying to get the ball to her and she's being a lot more active inside and allowing us to get the ball to her. That's all starting to work for us.
"I thought we did a good job offensively tonight...and everybody did a good job of a nice mix of post play and then outside play."

Killey said, "I'm proud of my team. We played really well, and we noticed a lot and we talked really good tonight, and I thought we played a pretty good game. It's always like do or die when it comes to games like this, and our coach gave us a big talk about it so we were all fired up."

The Tigers have six games remaining in the regular season, and their next one is on Thursday at Edinburgh.

"In practice, we've been talking because that's what we've been lacking," Killey said. "We're starting to pay more attention and everybody's talking to each other. We notice little things (in games)...and we know what plays to do now because of that. We want to finish the season strong, and we're using every team as preparation for (sectional)."

Box score

At Crothersville
Lanesville 19 8 13 13-53
Crothersville 20 23 13 21-77
Crothersville (11-3, 4-0): Luedeman 2-8 0-0 4, Killey 5-12 6-8 16, Hensley 4-10 2-2 13, Lucas 10-15 4-7 24, Prather 4-14 5-6 15, Schmelzle 1-2 1-2 3, Maxie 0-0 2-2 2, Hoskins 0-0 0-0 0, Sawyer 0-0 0-0 0, Schoenfelder 0-0 0-0 0, totals 26-61 20-27 77.
Lanesville (1-11, 0-4): Schoen 7-10 0-0 15, Dorgay 5-9 2-2 12, Johnston 1-7 2-4 4, Zollman 4-5 0-0 9, Smith 4-15 0-0 11, Myers 0-3 0-0 0, Timberlake 0-2 2-2 2, Riley 0-0 0-0 0, totals 21-51 6-8 53.
3-point goals: C 5-17 (Hensley 3-7, Prather 2-7, Luedeman 0-3), L 5-20 (Smith 3-9, Schoen 1-3, Zollman 1-2, Dorgay 0-1, Timberlake 0-2, Myers 0-3); Rebounds: C 34 (Killey 12, Lucas 10, Hensley 5, Prather 5), L 13 (Schoen 4, Johnston 3); Turnovers: C 9, L 10; Fouls: C 14, L 22 (fouled out: Zollman).