Stevens leads GHS girls back into win column

Allison Stevens came up big for Greencastle's girls on Tuesday night.

Banner Graphic file photo/JOEY BENNETT

The Greencastle Tiger Cubs picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and returned to playing winning girls’ basketball Tuesday night with an impressive 78-43 victory over the visiting Crawfordsville Athenians.

Paced by six-foot junior Allison Stevens with 30 points and 15 rebounds Greencastle improved to 6-2 on the season.

“Thirty and 15 is a really good night for Ali. In a boys’ game she’s a man among boys. Tonight she was just a beast inside,” Greencastle coach Tod Windlan said.

Stevens had plenty of help, too, as Seely Stoffregen had 15 points and Jalyn Duff 11 points and 15 assists.

“I thought Jalyn was really good. The first half I think she had nine assists. So (Jalyn) really found (Ali) in transition, found her in the half-court game,” Windlan said.

Crawfordsville (2-5) was led by Lauren Kellerman with 13 points.

Getting the ball inside to Stevens, plus scoring lay-ups in transition resulted in a 56 percent (33-59) shooting night for the Tiger Cubs. And while the 3-of-11 shooting from three-point range wasn’t great, the shots were open.

“We preach to them shooting becomes a lot easier when you pound it inside and they collapse and you’re dumping it out for wide-open threes, and that’s kind of how we played tonight,” Windlan said.

Greencastle hit its first four shots from the floor for an 8-2 lead and never trailed.

Duff hit a lay-up at the buzzer to give the Tiger Cubs a 23-15 lead after one quarter, but they weren’t out of the woods. Greencastle was called for seven fouls in the opening eight minutes, putting Crawfordsville in the one-and-one. Mia Shields spent a lot of time on the bench the first half because of three early fouls.

Windlan pulled the Tiger Cubs out of the man-to-man and into a trapping defense in the second period. Greencastle outscored Crawfordsville 17-5 in the second stanza to lead 40-20 at halftime.

“I wasn’t thrilled with us defensively at times, but everything we’re doing that’s not up to what I want it to be are all fixable. But things were better tonight,” Windlan said.

With the victory locked up in the first half, Greencastle played man-to-man defense the second half and worked on things at both end of the court and its depth. Greencastle led 58-33 going into the fourth quarter.

“We worked on some things and played a lot of kids,” Windlan said of the second half.

Greencastle returns to action Tuesday night at Tri-West.

CRAWFORDSVILLE (43) -- York 1-7 0-0 2, Kellerman 5-12 2-2 13, Barnett 1-5 0-0 2, Simmons 4-11 2-2 10, Williamson 4-9 3-5 11, McCarty 0-0 0-0 0, Balaz 0-2 0-0 0, Kincaid 0-0 0-0 0, Reed 1-6 3-4 5, Tesmer 0-0 0-0 0, Sinnet 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-52 FG, 10-13 FT, 43 TP.

GREENCASTLE (78) -- Stoffregen 6-10 0-1 13, Shields 0-1 0-0 0, Stevens 13-16 4-7 30, Shuee 4-9 0-0 9, Duff 3-6 5-6 11, Rodgers 2-3 0-0 4, Doan 3-8 0-0 6, Ray 1-1 0-0 2, Zellers 1-4 0-0 3, Trigg 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-59 FG, 9-14 FT, 78 TP.

3Pt. FG: Cv 1-11 (Kellerman 1-4, York 0-2, Barnett 0-2, Williamson 0-2, Reed 0-1), Gc 3-11 (Stoffregen 1-2, Zellers 1-3, Shuee 1-4, Shields 0-1, Duff 0-1). Total fouls: Cv 14, Gc 18. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None. Turnovers: Cv 18, Gc 11. Rebounds: Cv 33 (York, Williamson 6), Gc 34 (Stevens 15, Duff 5). Steals: Cv 2 (Williamson, Simmons), Gc 10 (Stoffregen, Shuee 2).

JV game: Greencastle won 34-21.

Next game: Greencastle (6-2) travels to Tri-West on Tuesday. Crawfordsville (2-5) plays at Danville on Saturday.