Tigers top Warriors for second victory

NEW ALBANY — Coach Clint Waskom breathed a sigh of relief and said, “The bottom line is, it’s really great to come out of here with a win.”

Waskom had just watched his Crothersville boys basketball team overcome a sluggish start to defeat Christian Academy 61-46 on Wednesday afternoon in the battle for fifth place in the Christian Academy of Indiana Invitational.

Crothersville trailed 9-6 after 6 minutes of play, and Waskom said his team did not look sharp during warm-ups.

“When you spend so much time around a group of young men, you can pretty much read their body language, and I kind of jumped on them and said, ‘guys, you’re not ready to play,’” he said. “They were not warming up hard. No one had a sweat going. They were just going through the motions and part of that might be attributed to being down here all day.

“I was fearful that we weren’t going to come out ready to play, and you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Christian Academy. That’s a young team, a hungry team, and they reminded me a lot of how we are some games.”

The Tigers weren’t as sharp on defense as Waskom would have liked as they were called for the first eight fouls of the game.

Crothersville’s Ryan Gabbard made a layup in the closing seconds of the first period to tie the game at 13.

“We came out flat that first quarter, and they played with us point for point,” Waskom said. “We made some adjustments. I made some substitutions trying to get the attention of a couple guys. I felt like the bench gave us a huge spark. We found guys to come in and give us a lift of energy.”

The Tigers picked up the intensity at both ends of the court in the second and third periods when they outscored the Warriors 30-14 to take a 43-27 lead into the fourth period.

Gabbard scored six points in the second period and finished the half with eight points and five rebounds.

The Tigers led 24-19 at the half.

“They packed it in on us (2-3 zone) in the first half,” Waskom said. “We had a size advantage on them, and I told the kids at halftime that we were 1-for-11 from the 3-point line. We’ve got some great 3-point shooters, and I never discourage any of our guards from taking outside shots. However, I felt like we rushed a couple. We’re a lot better team when we work the ball around and make the defense react. Our shooting percentage goes up whenever we can work it around and be patient.”

Christian Academy’s Cody Bachman drove the baseline and scored at the start of the third period before Corey Lewis and Cameron Royalty scored for the Tigers to make it a 28-21 game.

Gabbard converted a 3-point play with 1:51 left in the period to give the Tigers their first 10-point lead of the night at 33-23.

Gabbard owned the inside in the third period as he made five straight shots, plus two free throws for 12 points in the quarter, and Lewis pulled down five rebounds and had a basket during that time.

The Tigers were on top 47-32 following a pair of free throws by Zach Elliott with 5:05 remaining before the Warriors went on an 8-0 run to close to 47-40.

Royalty made a pair of free throws and Gabbard converted a three-point play to push the lead to 52-40 and the Tigers were well on their way to breaking their eight-game losing streak.

Gabbard finished with a career-high 27 points and had 11 rebounds, while Lewis pulled down 10 rebounds to help the Tigers to a 34-23 advantage in that department.

“Gabbard played huge tonight and Lewis played a great game,” Waskom said. “The bottom line is, we found a way to win, and when they made that run at us in the second half, I purposely didn’t call a timeout because I felt we were in that experience. We’ve had that the last few games, in those close games where teams had made a run at us.
“I felt that they had grown and I wanted them to play through it. I was very happy with the composure they kept. I felt Elliott did a good job taking care of the basketball. The kids were hungry for a victory, and I feel like that was the difference in the game.”

Bachman topped the Warriors with 17 points.

The Tigers are 2-9 and will face the Warriors on Jan. 9 at New Albany.

Box score

Christian Academy of Indiana Invitational at New Albany
Fifth-place game
Crothersville          13 11 19 18—61
Christian Academy 13 6   8   19—46
Crothersville (2-9): Chase Ackeret 3-7 0-0 6, Zach Elliott 0-3 7-12 7, Cameron Royalty 2-6 5-9 9, Ryan Gabbard 12-15 3-6 27, Mathew Lucas 2-3 0-0 4, Corey Lewis 1-7 1-4 3, Anthony Martin 0-1 0-0 0, Richie Whipple 1-2 0-0 3, Logan Oakes 0-2 2-4 2, Joe Sawyer 0-2 0-0 0, Chris Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Bradley Gabbard 0-0 0-0 0, totals 21-51 18-32 61
Christian Academy (0-10): Miller McCorkle 1-7 2-6 7, Aaron Hayes 3-8 0-0 6, Greg Laughlin 1-4 0-0 2, Chris Carruthers 4-9 2-2 10, Cody Bachman 5-10 7-7 17, Caleb Weaver 0-1 0-0 0, Nathaniel Burns 1-2 0-2 2, Tyler Stumler 1-1 0-0 2, totals 17-41 11-17 46
3-point goals: Crothersville (Whipple), Christian Academy (McCorkle)
Rebounds: Crothersville 34 (Gabbard 11, Lewis 10), Christian Academy 23 (Laughlin 8, Bachman 6)
Turnovers: Crothersville 14, Christian Academy 19
Fouls: Crothersville 22, Christian Academy 24 (fouled out: Carruthers)
Junior varsity
Crothersville          12 14 6 8—40
Christian Academy 14 2   9 13—38
Crothersville (8-3): B. Gabbard 12, Oakes 11, Scott Schuerman 10, Sawyer 5, Jarrod Royalty 2