AUSTIN
Josh Thomas scored six points in the final 39 seconds Saturday against South Central to help Crothersville’s boys basketball team register a 59-55 win in the battle for fifth place of the Scott County Invitational.
The game was tied at 53 when Thomas made a steal at midcourt, drove for a layup, was fouled and converted the free throw to put the Tigers in front to stay.
He added three free throws in the final 18 seconds and finished with 22 points, including seven in the fourth quarter.
Tigers coach Greg Kilgore said Thomas stepped up big for being a sophomore.
“He came up with a couple steals, rebounds and made some free throws,” Kilgore said. “He made some free throws when they counted, and it’s really good having a sophomore making those kind of plays at the end of a game like this.”
The Tigers held a 45-43 lead heading into the fourth quarter. After the Rebels tied the score, Noah Hoskins hit a 3-pointer to put momentum back on the Tigers’ side.
Crothersville stayed ahead until Chase Schoen dropped in a layup with 2:20 remaining to put South Central back on top for the final time at 53-52.
While Thomas was providing the Tigers with a strong attack outside with four 3-pointers, Dylan Wilson continually made strong moves to the basket inside, as he scored eight field goals and added six free throws for 22 points.
Kilgore said the Tigers had a nice inside-outside game.
“Dylan was pretty consistent the whole tournament, around 20 points,” Kilgore said. “(Friday) morning, we didn’t get a whole lot from Logan Brewer, and (Friday) night he scored 26 points. Today, he was off a little bit again, and Thomas came up big.
“The good thing about this team, we’ve got some flexibility with five or six different kids,” he said. “If somebody is having an off game, somebody else can step in and help them out, and that really helps a lot.”
Wilson had six points and Thomas made a 3-pointer in the opening quarter, but Lucas Stewart hit a pair of 3-pointers to help the Rebels to a 17-11 lead.
Crothersville went on a 13-4 run over the first four and a half minutes of the second quarter to take a 24-21 lead. Wilson scored seven points, and Thomas and Cable Spall made 3-pointers during the rally.
The Rebels turned around and outscored the Tigers 13-4 over the remainder of the quarter to lead 34-28 at the half.
Thomas added two more 3-pointers in the third quarter, while Wilson had seven points during that time to help the Tigers to a two-point lead going into the fourth quarter..
Kilgore said his team did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the second half.
“Turnovers were a difference. In the first half, we had 13 turnovers, and in the second half, we limited it to four,” he said.
“We knew they were going to play a 1-3-1 zone, and we worked on it this week some,” he said. “We worked on it (Saturday) morning and watched some film before we came down. The kids knew how to attack it because we did it several times, getting it into the middle of the zone and dumping it down low to Dylan. They just didn’t want to do it all the time.
“It seemed like we would do it two or three times, and then it was, ‘OK, now let’s shoot a 3.’ That’s not the best way to beat a zone. Usually, a team plays a zone because they want you to shoot a lot of 3s.”
Another factor was free throws, as the Tigers made 13 of 18, and Ben Wibbels made the Rebels’ only attempt of the game in the first quarter.
Wilson scored 62 points and had 22 rebounds during his three tournament games and was named to the all-tournament team.
“The kids are going to take a few days off,” Kilgore said. “We started the year out 8-3, and a couple of those we lost we felt like we should have been closer, and we felt like the Orleans game slipped away from us. I told the kids just before we came out we can’t be too upset with an 8-3 record going into the holiday break. It makes for a Merry Christmas.”