AUSTIN
Against one of its biggest rivals, most everything was going right for Crothersville’s boys basketball team.
Until the final three seconds of the game.
Ahead 59-57, with 3.1 ticks on the clock out of a time out, Austin’s Trey Hargrave set a screen at the top of the arc for teammate Drew Buhr on an inbound play.
After some contact on the pick, with Buhr running to the right corner of the floor, Hargrave slipped to the top of the line and buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer to hand the Tigers a heart-breaker on Friday.
“We switched on every screen to get to Buhr, and had two guys in the middle since we were up two,” Tigers coach Greg Kilgore said. “They did a great job on the lob, and I felt wonderful as it was coming in to (Hargrave). We had a hand up, and closed out, but they made the shot. In that situation, in my opinion, you try and make one of their role players beat you. He just made the shot.”
After the Eagles (11-12) scored the opening basket, the Tigers (13-10) went on a 9-0 run behind a pair of baskets by Timmy Burton and a 3-pointer from Josh Thomas.
Logan Brewer then took over the offensive duties for the Tigers, scoring his team’s next eight points to push the lead to 17-9.
At the end of eight minutes of play, the Tigers led 18-11.
Buhr scored five straight points to start the second quarter, pulling his team within a point with 5:45 left in the half.
Lane Wienhorst drilled a 3-pointer and Brewer scored the Tigers’ next three baskets to keep the Tigers ahead 27-21 with 1:22 on the clock.
Baskets from Hargrave and Dawson Bruce cut into the lead in the final 58 seconds, but the Tigers led 27-25 at half.
In the opening half, the Tigers outrebounded the Eagles 23-11. Brewer led all scorers with 16 points and nine boards.
Brewer kept the points coming in the third quarter, scoring his team’s first nine to put the visitors up 38-31 with 4:34 on the clock.
The Eagles answered with a 7-2 run, but the Tigers held on to the lead at 47-43 going into the final eight minutes of play.
Austin used a 9-2 scoring spree to take the lead 52-49 three minutes into the fourth quarter.
With 1:42 left, the teams were tied at 55 until Brewer cleaned up an offensive rebound to put the Tigers up by two with seven seconds remaining.
The Tigers, with fouls to burn, fouled the Eagles twice before the final play of the game.
Brewer led the Tigers with 35 points and 17 rebounds and Josh Thomas scored five points to go along with 15 boards. Buhr topped the Eagles with 23 points and Hargrave had 17.
The Tigers outrebounded the Eagles 40-24 on the night.
“I told them if we rebound like that in the sectional, we can compete with anyone,” Kilgore said. “There isn’t a team more physical than Austin. I thought the kids really played hard, and controlled the pace of the game for about 29 minutes.
The Tigers will play Trinity Lutheran on Tuesday in the late game at the West Washington Sectional.