For the Tribune
CROTHERSVILLE
Crothersville’s boys basketball coach Greg Kilgore said he had a good feeling halfway through the first quarter of the Tigers’ game against Orleans on Saturday night.
But the good vibes
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didn’t hold.
After Eli Mollet drove for a layup to make the score 21-12, the Bulldogs closed the half on a 10-2 run, then outscored the Tigers 35-7 in the second half to coast to a 66-19 win.
“I really felt like the first four or five minutes of the game we played about the best basketball we were capable of playing,” Kilgore said as the visitors held a 9-6 lead in the early minutes.
In the first quarter, Orleans increased the score to 12-6 following a 3-pointer by Murphy Wheeler with 1:11 remaining.
Dakota Mount scored off an offensive rebounds on the Tigers’ next possession before the Bulldogs held a 15-8 lead going into the second quarter.
Chase Hall made Orleans’ fifth 3-pointer of the night at 6:07 of the second period to put his team on top 21-8.
“They’re an excellent ball club,” Kilgore said of Orleans. “They are very well coached, very disciplined.”
The Bulldogs, with all five starters returning from last season, shot 7-for-11 from 3-point range in the first half.
Crothersville finished with 7 2-point baskets and one 3-pointer, and none of the Tigers had more than two field goals.
“We’ve got to find more baskets,” Kilgore said. “We had 13 turnovers. With that kind of pressure, 13 turnovers is excellent. I put some numbers of the board before we came out on the floor. I put turnovers 14 or less, and if we could shoot
40 percent, and 70 percent from the line I thought we could keep it decent.”
“You couldn’t convince the kids they were going to beat Orleans after a coming off a 41-point loss (to Austin), but stay to in the ballgame,” Kilgore said.
The Tigers had 27 field goal attempts on the game.
The Bulldogs had a balanced scoring attack as Cale Hall scored 14, and Wheeler and Steven Phillips both netted 12.
Conner Adams was high for the Tigers with 5 points.
Kilgore addressed his team for 30 minutes after the game.
“I told them I’m going to shoulder part of the blame,” he said. “I think I can push them a little harder if they will stick through it. Sometimes kids don’t want to be pushed harder. They do what they want to do. We’ll find out Monday because we’ve got to get back to work. I’m sure I’ve got some really fragile emotions with the team right now. I’m going to have to really watch what we do because Friday we go to Medora and Saturday Rock Creek is right back here. We’ve got to start convincing the kids they can win and they can score baskets.”