NORTH VERNON
It was a rare girl/boy varsity doubleheader on Friday night for the Crothersville basketball teams.
The Class A Tigers took on the 4A Panthers hoping to add a top-tier tally to their list of victories this season.
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Here’s how the games fared for both teams:
Panthers pound Crothersville
Jennings County could not miss and won the battle on the boards as they routed the Tigers 82-47 on Friday night.
Crothersville hung around early, but were outmatched in the paint and allowed too many open looks behind the 3-point line to keep pace with the longer Panthers.
Jennings County shot 45 percent from behind the arc.
A Quinten Keasler layup in the first quarter got the game within two and that was as close as the Tigers would get it. Jennings County went on an 8-0 run to finish the period and scored by the bucket load in each of the next three quarters to win by their largest margin of victory this season.
Rebounding was always going to be tough for the Tigers against the Panthers with the hosts boasting seven players six feet or taller and their sophomore center topping out at 6-feet-8-inches.
In contrast, Keasler is the tallest player for the Tigers at 6-5. While he was able make life tough for the Panther center, he was never able to completely contain him.
Jennings County outrebounded the Tigers 31-22 for the game.
The Tigers tried to catch fire in the second half, but were unable to sustain any positive momentum. Any time they would string together a few shots, the Panthers would answer right back 10 fold.
Josh Thomas led Crothersville with 17 points and was the only player for the Tigers in double figures.
Ethan Shirley and Cable Spall both tallied eight, Keasler added six, Kaedon Bright and Jayden Walls scored three, and Carson Farmer rounded out the scoring with two.
Panthers jump on Tigers early
In the girls’ game, Jennings County socked the Tigers early and never let them get comfortable as they slammed Crothersville 75-40.
Seniors Makinzee Isley and Rebekah Cook tried to keep the Tigers in the game at the start, scoring 10 of their 17 first-half points, but the Panthers used a 16-5 run in the second quarter to open up the game before the break.
Both Isley and Cook were forced to the bench for more than half of the second period due to foul trouble. Without either of them in the lineup, the Tiger offense went stagnant while the Panthers were just starting to heat up.
The Tigers tried to will their way back into the game in the second half and were outscoring their hosts in the early stages of the third, but the double-digit halftime deficit was too much to overcome.
It also didn’t help that the Panthers found their groove again and bolstered their 15-point lead to 24 by the stanza’s end.
Turnovers haunted the Tigers, committing more than 20 for the game, and led to several good chances for the Panthers at the other end.
However, Jennings County missed many of their point-blank looks that would have blown the game even further out of proportion.
While it didn’t result in a win, the game will pay dividends for the Tigers as they inch closer to sectional play.
This is the only matchup of the year where Crothersville will play an opponent above Class 2A, and the experience will hopefully pay off in a few weeks. Playing up three classes exposes the Tigers’ to bigger and quicker players they will have to overcome if they want to have a successful postseason.
Makayla Helt led the Tigers with nine points, while both Isley and Grace Wilson scored eight. Kennadi Lakins tallied seven, Cook netted four, and both Addy Cole and Isabell Lewis chipped in two.
The Tigers will host Jackson County rival Medora on Monday, while the boys are off until next Friday when they host Southern Athletic Conference rival South Central.
Both games are set for 7:30 p.m. tipoffs.