CROTHERSVILLE
With 3:30 on the clock in the third quarter, Crothersville junior Katrina Christian cut to the basket — through a pair of New Washington defenders — and went up with her left hand to make a shot to write history.
Play was halted, and as the crowd roared, the feat boomed over the loud speaker.
“With that basket, Katrina Christian joins the 1,000 points club!”
Christian was presented the ball and ran over to hand the ball to her mother before getting a hug with tears rolling down her face.
“They were running a box-and-one on me and then they started playing off of me because I wasn’t hitting from the outside,” Christian said of the record-setting score. “I started driving to the basket and trying to finish with my left, my dominant hand. As soon as I scored, the weight lifted off me.”
Christian finished with 20 points against the Mustangs, and the Tigers came away with a 56-48 win on senior night.
The junior is the sixth player to record 1,000 in school history, as she now has recorded 1,015 points.
Christian had two points at halftime before taking the lid off the basket in the final 16 minutes.
“I was more concerned with the win because we were already down,” Christian said. “It’s an amazing feeling to have 1,000 points and to be with Crothersville royalty and join a list of amazing players.
“I’ve put in so much work over the past two and one half years. I’ve been thinking about it the past couple weeks. I never thought five points would be so hard to score. It was really frustrating at first, but I got out of it.”
Crothersville came out sluggish to start the game, falling behind 9-2 by the 5:30-mark as the Mustangs’ Haley Tye notched six points.
Tigers senior Alexis Adair ended the Mustangs’ run with a 3-pointer, and Christian hit a pair of free throws to narrow the deficit at 14-7 after eight minutes of play.
The Tigers trailed for all the second quarter, but an Adair trey with four seconds on the clock put the score at 22-18 in favor of New Washington at intermission.
Following Christian’s shot to put her on the leaderboard, the Tigers went on a 5-0 run to close-out the third quarter as they trailed 32-27.
“We had to pick it up defensively,” Tigers coach Kevin Hensley said. “I thought we might come in mentally lax with it being senior night, and I was afraid of that. The defense is what eventually got us back into the game.”
Adair and Christian took over offensively to start the fourth quarter.
The pair combined for a 10-2 run, with Adair hitting two 3-pointers, as the Tigers went up 39-34 with 5:15 left in the game.
Christian hit two free throws at 1:29 for a 48-42 advantage, and freshman Maddie Riley sealed the game with two shots from the charity stripe with 22 ticks on the clock at 53-46.
Adair finished with 16 points to go along with Christian’s 20 to lead the Tigers.
Adair broke the record for most 3-pointers during the Tigers’ last game against Springs Valley, and bumped the margin to 147 with four treys against the Mustangs.
Gracie Krouse finished with 27 points while Hope Griffith and Haley Tye each notched eight for the Mustangs.
Crothersville won the rebounding battle 28-20, behind eight by senior Abby Jewell and seven from Christian.
Tigers coach Kevin Hensley started seniors Adair, Jewell, Cassidy Mantz, Alisha Basil, and Julia McIntosh for the Tigers’ final home game.
“I did it out of respect for them, everyone is a part of this team,” Hensley said. “I relish being around them. I hate having seniors move on, all five of them are a great bunch.”
With the win, coach Hensley became the winningest coach to head the girls’ program at 51 victories passing former coach Andrew Nehrt.
Saturday, the Tigers (11-10) will play at Trinity Lutheran.
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1,000 point scorers from the Crothersville girls basketball program:
- Brooke Prather (2006-10);1,165 points
- Sarah Turner (1983-87);1,152 points
- Liz Otte (2001-05);1,067
- Amber Lucas (2005-09);1,054
- Courtney Killey (2006-10);1,054
- Katrina Christian (2013-17);1,015
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