CROTHERSVILLE
Henryville put together scoring runs throughout the game, while Crothersville couldn’t get its baskets to consistently fall.
Once Henryville built a double-digit lead at halftime of Saturday’s boys basketball game, the Hornets maintained in winning 59-34 to finish 5-0 in the Southern Athletic Conference and take the title outright.
Crothersville, meanwhile, finished in a tie for second at 3-2 with Lanesville, which defeated the Tigers 64-52 on Friday night.
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Nick Walker’s basket two and a half minutes into the game gave Henryville a 9-0 lead, forcing a Crothersville timeout.
The host Tigers settled in some and only trailed 16-11 at the end of the first quarter.
For the first three minutes of the second quarter, though, the visiting Hornets went on a 7-2 run to lead by 10 points.
Josh Thomas’ 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in the first half pulled Crothersville within 26-19, but Westin Allen answered with a 3 of his own a few seconds before the halftime buzzer for a 10-point edge at the break.
Allen came off of the bench in the quarter and scored eight of the team’s 13 points.
Tigers coach Greg Kilgore said he knew Henryville was capable of the scoring runs. He also noted the Hornets’ balanced attack.
“Walker is a kid that you’re not going to stop,” Kilgore said. “He scored 17 tonight. That’s not a terrible job we did, but what hurts you is (Thomas) Green gets 13, the (Kade) Badger kid gets nine and a couple more with eight. It’s kind of how you’ve got to play them, though, to make some other kids beat you, and they did tonight.”
Kilgore said the Tigers were fortunate to only trail by 10 points at halftime despite 10 turnovers.
He was looking for his team to come out strong in the third quarter, but Henryville opened on a 10-4 run by the 3:32 mark.
About a minute later, the Hornets’ lead ballooned to 43-23 on a putback by Kasey Robertson. Each team scored three points apiece the rest of the way, and Henryville led by 20 going into the fourth quarter.
Logan Brewer scored all eight of the Tigers’ points in the fourth quarter, but the home team was too far behind to make a comeback.
“The second half, we only turned it over five times, which is good against this team, but we took a few quick shots, a couple of bad shots, and those role players that I’m talking about we had to make beat us, those shots in the first half when it was a three-, four-, five-point game, those shots are hard to make for role players,” Kilgore said. “Second half, when it gets out to a 14-, 15-, 16-point lead, you or I could go out there and make those shots.”
Only three of Crothersville’s starters scored in the game, including Dylan Wilson and Thomas with eight points apiece, while Brewer scored a team-high 13 points off of the bench.
Henryville (19-3), meanwhile, had all of its starters score. Behind Walker’s game-high 17, Green added 13, Badger had nine and Robertson finished with eight. Walker also took game honors in rebounds with 13.
Crothersville (14-7) hopes to get back on track with its final two games of the regular season — Tuesday at Medora and Friday at home against Austin.
“I got them together there at the end of the game, my first eight or nine guys, I told them, ‘We’ve just got to put these two behind us. We lose two in a row to two good teams here on our floor. We finished tied for second place in the conference, which isn’t all bad,'” Kilgore said. “We’ll have to see where we fall (in the sectional draw), and we’ll use the two games this week as sectional preparation.”