The championship game of the Sugar Creek Classic featured the #7 ranked Crawfordsville Athenians facing off against conference rival Western Boone. The two teams have developed a nice rivalry over the past couple of years with each winning a Sugar Creek Classic and Sectional championship and Crawfordsville holding a 3-2 advantage head-to-head. Saturday night’s final saw Western Boone even the head-to-head matchup 3-3 with a dramatic 50-49 victory.
Over the past three seasons, the Lady Stars have accounted for 3 of the 8 total losses for the Lady Athenians.
Western Boone controlled the game throughout the first half as their intense defensive pressure kept Crawfordsville from getting into any type of offensive flow. The Lady Athenians were held to only 4 points in the second quarter and the Lady Stars took a 22-14 lead into halftime.
Western Boone extended the lead to 28-18 early in the third quarter before Crawfordsville began it’s comeback.
Senior Alex Gasaway stepped up and showed why she is one of the top players in the area as she poured in 15 of her game high 19 points in the second half, many of which came on aggressive drives through heavy traffic to the basket. Her biggest shot was a huge three with 0.3 seconds remaining to draw the Lady Athenians to within one. From where I was sitting, I thought she also drew a foul on the shot but unlike the consolation game, no whistle was blown.
Crawfordsville was able to steal the inbounds pass but was unable to get off a good shot before time expired.
The Lady Athenians did a good job of containing Western Boone all-everything guard Brandy Woody from the floor, holding her to 3-13 shooting, but the scrappy senior finished 11-14 from the free throw line, including 6-6 in the critical 4th quarter.
Woody was named tourney MVP and was joined on the all-tourney team by teammate Sarah Brewer who finished the night with 12 points. Gasaway and Betty Elliott along with North Montgomery freshman Kelsi Byrd rounded out the all-tourney team.
Congratulations to Western Boone on their win.
Mark February 5 on your calendar now. Western Boone will travel to Crawfordsville for the final game of the regular season. Knowing Coach Haas and the Lady Athenians, they will be looking for revenge and the game should be another epic matchup of two very talented teams.
Below is a slideshow of some of my favorite images from the night. Unlike the Journal Review, these photos are from this outstanding game. I guess covering a championship game featuring two local schools is not worthy of their time. The grainy photo of a guy from a 5-7 football team kissing a bucket was much more “special”.
Click here to view them as a gallery or click here to view all the photos from the night.
2009-11-21 CHS GV Basketball vs Western Boone – My Picks – Images by Kevin Seale