The Crawfordsville Athenians will challenge the Covington Trojans at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Crawfordsville has now lost seven straight, leaving the team hunting for their first win since January 31.
Last Friday, Crawfordsville ended up a good deal behind Danville and lost 66-48.
Despite the loss, Crawfordsville got top-tier performance from Alec Saidian, who to rack up 21 points and seven boards. That was a full 43.8% of Crawfordsville's points, marking the third time in a row Saidian has posted more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Jacob Lee, who scored nine points and five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Covington came up short against South Vermillion on Saturday and fell 68-58. The Trojans have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Crawfordsville will need to focus on slowing down Austin Stein, one of several Covington players who made an impact when they last played. He had 22 points and five assists. That's the most points Stein has posted since back in February of 2024. Landon Herzog was another key player, on his way to 15 points along with eight boards and three steals.
Even though they lost, Covington smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in three consecutive matches.
Crawfordsville's defeat dropped their record down to 6-15. As for Covington, their loss dropped their record down to 10-13.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Crawfordsville has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 22 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Covington struggles in that department as they've been averaging 26.1 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Everything went Crawfordsville's way against Covington in their previous meeting back in February of 2024, as Crawfordsville made off with a 67-45 victory. Will Crawfordsville repeat their success, or does Covington have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
