Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

CRAWFORDSVILLE — Western Boone gave Southmont all it could handle on Friday night as the two Sagamore Conference rivals met for the second time in nearly three weeks in the opening round of the 16th annual Boys Sugar Creek Classic at Crawfordsville High School. The Stars came out of the gates fast and held a 10-3 lead over the Mounties early in the first quarter. South was able to cut the deficit to 12-8 after the first eight minutes as the two teams were neck and neck the rest of the way. South ended up coming away with the win 48-40 as the Stars were again turned away in another close contest. After a Kaden Bennington triple gave the Stars a 35-32 lead in the opening minute of the fourth, the Mounties went on a 10-0 run to grab a 42-35 lead with 4:41 left in the game. Western Boone didn’t back down and scored the next five to cut it to 42-40 with 1:58 left. However Southmont was able to ice the game at the free-throw line scoring the final six points of the game at the charity stripe as they close out the win. “I thought we were really efficient and patient on offense in those first three quarters, but in that fourth we lost that a few times,” Western Boone coach Dustin Oakley said. “I thought we could’ve gotten better looks and when South gets those stops and goes down and converts because we foul them, it’s hard to overcome that. I like how we fought back and I liked us in that position. We put ourselves in a good position to win, we just didn’t make winning decision and winning plays to finish it out.” Bennington’s 12 points led the way for the Stars in the loss as six other players ended up in the scoring column as Barta scored six with Jaxson Gott, Blake Miller, and Marcus Stepp all scoring five. Gavin Hawkins added four and Marcus Fortner rounded out the scoring with three. Western Boone shot 16-38 (42%) from the field but attempted just four free-throws compared to the Mounties 16. With the loss the Stars fall to 1-8 on the season and see their losing streak go to eight games after winning their season opener. They’ll get another crack to snap the streak on Saturday as they will now play in the consolation game against North Montgomery. “We’ve been in this position a lot the last three years where we keep fighting in games but just can’t seem to pull out a win and we get on losing streaks,” Oakley said. “It sucks losing eight in a row after winning our first one of the year, but our guys have the right attitudes and mentality and we’ll come out tomorrow and be strong.” Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems. JV Recap: The JV Boys Team also went 1-1 in the Sugar Creek JV Tourney. In the first game the Stars fell to the Mounties of Southmont by a final score of 55-33. Scoring for the Stars was Tristyn Faulk 8, Drew Gott 6, Carter Hanna 6, Bryce Kopriva 5, Luke Adkins 4, Brandon Potter 3, and Nick Hurliman 1. In the second game the Stars over came a 12 point deficit to win at the buzzer against North Montgomery on a put back by Tristyn Faulk. Scoring for the Stars was Tristyn Faulk with 27, Bryce Kopriva 7, Carter Hanna 6, Drew Gott 4, Jackson Grimes 4, and Eli Mitchell 4.