Mustangs snag win from Tigers in overtime

AUSTIN — Devin Freels has become the Crothersville Tigers’ nemesis.

The New Washington junior guard broke a tie in the Southern Athletic Conference game on Dec. 15 with a last-second shot and scored 16 points.

On Monday during a Christian Academy Tournament pool game at Austin, Freels finished with 34 points, including 16-for-19 from the free-throw line and scoring 10 of the team’s 14 points in overtime, and the Mustangs slipped by the Tigers 84-82.

Crothersville was called for nine fouls in the first quarter and finished the game with 30. Three players fouled out in the final two minutes, and Freels was 8-for-9 from the line in overtime, including four straight off of a foul in the lane and a technical foul, giving his team an 84-79 lead with 2.6 seconds remaining.

Freels was called for his fourth foul at 7:28 of the fourth quarter and went back and forth from the bench to the floor the rest of the game, but he was in the game when it mattered most.

“He was just putting his head down and his shoulders down because he’s smaller, trying to slice defenders and get through there,” Tigers coach Clint Waskom said of 5-foot-8 Freels. “If we just slide over and step up and take a charge, we’ve got the ball right there going back the other way. I felt like defensively we executed what we needed to do there, and the call didn’t go our way, but that’s part of basketball.”

The Tigers missed several opportunities to earn their second win of the season.

Anthony Martin found a rhythm from 3-point land, sinking four in the first quarter, and he made all five of his shots to boost his team to a 25-19 lead after one.

The Tigers built up an eight-point lead in the second quarter, but Freels’ 3 at 44 seconds gave his team a 35-34 lead and he made two free throws in the final two seconds for a three-point lead at halftime. He scored nine in the period.

After zero points in the first half, Tigers postman Mathew Lucas came alive in the third quarter with three offensive put-backs, the final one putting the Tigers ahead 53-47 at 2:18. He scored 12 of the team’s 21 points, and Crothersville led 55-50 going into the fourth.

The Mustangs’ pressure rattled the Tigers early in the fourth until Crothersville broke free and had a nine-point lead on another put-back by Lucas at 6:18.

“I didn’t want them playing back on their heels and trying to coast it out the last four minutes because they had really turned up the defensive pressure,” Waskom said. “I felt like we could take advantage of that offensively because we took care of the ball and were aggressive with it and looked to go to the basket and get the ball inside.”

Chris Radford then stepped up for the Mustangs, scoring 10 of his 26 points in the fourth, and they took a 66-64 lead at 2:22.

After a free throw by New Washington’s Jesse Wiggam, Cameron Royalty sliced the ball to Chase Ackeret for a baseline cut and score at 1:23 to get within one.

Freels made two free throws at 40 seconds, Lucas scored underneath 20 seconds later, Drake Krohn went 1-for-2 at the line at 14 seconds and Ryan Gabbard tipped in Royalty’s miss at 1.6 seconds to carry the game into overtime.

The Tigers had a four-point lead halfway through overtime before Freels’ three-point play. The Tigers regained the lead on Martin’s three-point play at 1:14, but Freels answered by making 7 of 8 at the line in the final minute. Gabbard hit a 3 at the buzzer for the final scoring.

“I felt like if we could have maybe kept the aggression there and prevented a couple of turnovers that we got there late in regulation that we wouldn’t be in position to go into overtime,” Waskom said. “Of course, in the overtime, our foul situation and with how many people we had in foul trouble, that’s why I did not want it to go to overtime.”

Through the tense game, Lucas (26 points, 14 rebounds) and Gabbard (19 points, 12 rebounds) pulled out double-doubles and Martin scored 21 points.

Tonight, the Tigers (1-8) will play Austin (4-2) in the final pool game. Austin defeated New Washington 79-47 in the second pool game on Monday night.

“These kids, every day in practice, they bring it,” he said. “Our practices, they are phenomenal when it comes to intensity and effort, and today I felt like they carried over into the game. They came out and they battled, and they do that every day for me and I really respect these kids. They battle and battle and battle, and the bottom line is they come in every day wanting to get better.
“These close games, they can pay off huge for you come the end of the season. In the postseason, there’s always a lot of close games that are decided by one or two possessions, and if you’ve played in those situations, that’s going to be to your benefit come later in the year.”

Box score

Christian Academy Tournament pool game at Austin
Crothersville        25 9   21 15 12—82
New Washington 19 18 13 20 14—84
Crothersville (1-8): Chase Ackeret 2-7 0-0 4, Anthony Martin 8-13 1-1 21, Zach Elliott 2-7 0-1 4, Cameron Royalty 1-13 3-4 5, Mathew Lucas 11-15 4-4 26, Corey Lewis 1-4 1-3 3, Ryan Gabbard 7-12 4-5 19, Bradley Gabbard 0-0 0-0 0, Chris Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Oakes 0-0 0-0 0, totals 32-71 13-18 82
New Washington (4-3): Drake Krohn 3-7 2-4 9, Devin Freels 7-18 16-19 34, Jesse Wiggam 1-5 3-4 5, Dustin Bowman 2-9 0-0 6, Chris Radford 9-21 7-10 26, Jacob Ramer 2-4 0-0 4, Jesse Woods 0-1 0-0 0, Michael Looney 0-0 0-0 0, 24-65 28-37 84
3-point goals: Crothersville (Martin 4, R. Gabbard), New Washington (Freels 4, Bowman 2, Radford, Krohn)
Rebounds: Crothersville 37 (Lucas 14, R. Gabbard 12), New Washington 26 (Krohn 8, Radford 5)
Turnovers: Crothersville 13, New Washington 11
Fouls: Crothersville 30 (fouled out: Elliott, Lucas, Lewis), New Washington 18
Junior varsity
Crothersville        11 14 17 10—52
New Washington 12 7   7   7—33
Crothersville (7-2): B. Gabbard 15, Oakes 13, Eric Prewitt 13, Joe Sawyer 4, Jimmy Needler 3, Ean Lakins 2, Jarrod Royalty 2