Story & Photos by Wade Bell, Clarion News The Crawford County Wolfpack and the Perry Central Commodores went at each other like gladiators in the arena in the opening round of the Perry-Spencer Holiday Classic on Dec. 27 at Tell City, and it was the Commodores who withstood a furious Crawford County rally in the fourth quarter to get a seven-point win. The charity stripe became the Wolfpack’s own enemy as the Commodores advanced into the semi-finals to meet Corydon Central, which won over Tell City in its opening round. “I don’t know what the shooting percentage was, but the free-throw shooting, that was a big part of it and why we lost the game,” said Crawford County coach Jonathon Bowles. “There was a lot of great things that happened throughout the game. Really, we had only one bad quarter, and it got us beat. You take that third quarter out, and it was a really good ballgame.” Most of the first quarter saw the two teams trade points back and forth with the advantage going to the Commodores. Ian Sturgeon put away a Crawford County three-ball for a brief 8-7 edge, but Perry Central countered on a deuce-and-one by Wick Craney. The two teams traded points again, and the Commodores held the edge by three at the end of the period, 13-10. Perry Central went up by five to start the second quarter, but Braxton Bowman later closed that gap to one with a pair of deuces. The Commodores followed that up with a six-point burst to lead by seven. Crawford County closed out the quarter with a 7-3 burst and was down by three, 26-23, at halftime. “I think it’s very important with the group that we have not to always concentrate on the results,” said Bowles. “We’re a process-focused team and, when you think about the process, like the process of hitting free throws, when you do that, the result (is a win).” Things went bad for the Wolfpack in the third quarter as Perry Central began the period with a 6-0 burst to lead by nine. That later went into double digits after a 7-1 Commodores’ run to lead 41-26. The two teams traded points again until Gage Clark scored in the paint for Perry Central’s biggest lead of the night, 47-30. Crawford County closed the distance slightly on a Brody Fish three. Bowman and Craney traded baskets before the end of the quarter with Crawford County down 49-35 with one period remaining. After missing their first three shots of the final quarter, the Wolfpack changed gears and made a 9-2 run to close their deficit to five. Clark sank a Commodore deuce, but Crawford County held its ground. After Perry Central went back up by seven, Landon Sines converted on a deuce-and-one, and Thomas Harper put in a three to close the gap to one, 58-57. That didn’t hold, however, for the Wolfpack as the Commodores scored the next eight. That was the back-breaker as Perry Central went on for the 68-61 win. “We’re super proud of our guys, battling like they did,” said Bowles. “If this game was at the beginning of the season, I’m not so sure we would have battled back and made this a ballgame. We had a freshman come in and hit a big three and cut it to one then, unfortunately, they go down and get an and-one. But we had fought back like we did, and I’m super proud of them for that. That was just great effort, flying around defensively, and making things happen.” Bowman led the Wolfpack with 28 points, and Devin Decker followed with 13 for the game. Crawford County put in 25 of 60 field goals (40%) and had 15 turnovers. The biggest state was free-throw shooting where the Wolfpack was just 7 of 20 from the charity stripe. “Braxton, everybody talks about him scoring, but I don’t think they see how he gets his points,” said the Crawford County coach. “A lot of it is on-ball defense and getting steals like that and getting out in transition. He gave them a lot of fits. I thought Ian Sturgeon gave them a lot of fits the entire game playing really good defense. We had some guys make some plays to get us caught up. For them to keep that confidence that we still had a chance to make a game of it, that’s big for us. That shows us we’re maturing a little bit and making some steps.” Craney led the Commodores with 26, while Clark and Zac Mitchell finished with 14 each. Perry Central connected on 24 of 56 from the field (43%) and 15 of 25 free throws. The Commodores had 18 turnovers for the game. “The fourth quarter was a really great job,” said Bowles. “Again, I think we’ve got to stay process-driven. We can’t necessarily look at results, and I think these guys are starting to buy into that instead of, ‘Oh, we got beat,’ and not worrying on how you got beat. They’re starting to talk about it. That was really good to see for the first time. They were actually saying some of the stuff that got us beat. It just shows maturity.” Crawford County 10 13 12 26 - 61 Perry Central 13 13 23 19 - 68 Crawford County - Bowman 28, Decker 13, Sines 8, Sturgeon 6, Fish 3, Harper 3. Perry Central - Craney 26, Clark 14, Mitchell 14, Stumler 9, Litherland 3, O. Hubert 2. 3-point goals - Crawford County 5 (Decker 2, Sturgeon 2, Harper 1); Perry Central 1 (Litherland).