MONTICELLO — Mike Crawford didn’t remember the basket which put him alone atop the Tipton boys basketball team’s all-time scoring list. He was wrapped up in a tight game at Twin Lakes, hadn’t kept track of his scoring and didn’t notice the Tipton crowd’s response.
It’s that focus that puts him in the position he finds himself in today, as the school’s all-time leading scorer, and with a chance to be the school’s all-time winningest player by the time he finishes this, his senior season.
Crawford scored 24 points Saturday night, helping his squad post a 60-47 victory at Twin Lakes. Class 2A No. 3-ranked Tipton improved to 12-1 overall and 5-0 in Hoosier Conference play and extended its league winning streak to 35 games. Twin Lakes fell to 7-5, and 1-2 in the HC.
“If the record came in a loss, I don’t know if that would have been a very happy moment,” Crawford said. “But it was nice that we got the win.”
The St. Louis recruit tied previous record-holder Matt Waddell with a driving bucket to close the first quarter and put his team up 17-12. He set the record with a 3-point basket with 4:03 left in the second quarter that put Tipton ahead 20-12.
“I played with the guy that held the record, so obviously, it’s been here for a long time,” Tipton coach Brad Dickey said. Dickey is a 1988 Tipton grad while Waddell graduated in 1990.
“Mike’s more of a banger and more of a physical-type player. Matt was an excellent shooter and a good set-up man. They have a lot of the same ball skills, but Mike’s a bone-crushing, inside-outside threat. Matt was a smoother player overall, but we sure like our guy.”
Growing up in Tipton, Crawford’s favorite players as a kid were always guards. He grew into a 6-foot-5 multi-threat with a silky touch from outside, a nice driving game, and the strength to mix it up inside. He took a game-high eight rebounds.
“[The record] means a lot,” Crawford said. “When I came up as a freshman, I never expected that I would do that. I want to say thanks to all our teammates and people that supported me. Without them, this wouldn’t happen. I’m more proud of all the wins that we’ve got than the actual record itself.”
Crawford scored at least five points in every quarter but was far from alone. Tipton guard Blake Hoover added 23 points and sparked the Blue Devils with the first six points of the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer and a hoop-and-harm fast break hoop to turn a three-point lead after three quarters into a 44-35 advantage. Crawford added the next basket on a flash to the paint to cap a 12-0 Tipton run over the third and fourth quarters that put the Devils ahead 46-35. They’d trailed by a point prior to that run. The Tipton lead was never less than nine points after that.
“We strung together some good defensive rebounding and some good offensive execution,” Dickey said of the run to break over a close game. “Blake Hoover was outstanding really all night long, and especially during that run, and we had some really good coverage in our zone.”
Tipton sealed the game with perfect 11 of 11 shooting from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Freshman guard Mason Degenkolb hit six freebies in the fourth and finished with seven points. Nate Friend added four points for Tipton and Austin Hooker had a deuce to go with five rebounds.
The game was air tight through the third quarter after being tied 22-all at halftime. Similar to Friday night’s victory over Sheridan, the Blue Devils found a way to take control down the stretch.
“We’ve just got a lot of smart kids on our team,” Crawford said. “We’ve played millions of basketball games together. [Eventually], we’ll figure something out and it starts clicking for us. I think we play our best basketball in the second half and it shows in all our wins this year.”
Guard Cameron Bennington led Twin Lakes with 20 points, and forward Cody Deboy added 10 points and a team-best six rebounds.
“It’s a hard place to play and [Twin Lakes] coach [Kent] Adams does a great job with his kids,” Dickey said. “Bennington is a great shooter and posed a serious challenge for our team. That’s why the game was so interesting for so long.”
Dickey said it helped to have an ace in the hole.
“Mike Crawford, once again ... he just solidifies our team,” Dickey said. “He makes the rebounds and sets us up in some good offenses down the stretch, breaks the school record for scoring points. He plays to win. The next better record that we’re going to pay attention to is total wins by an individual player at our school.”
Sports
Devils down Indians; Crawford sets scoring record
Tipton wins 35th straight HC game
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Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
The boys track and field coach at Eastern High School from 1987 until last season, Paul Nicholson’s parting message to his team was simple: “Don’t deny the gift.”
That motto left such a lasting impression on the Comets’ returning athletes that they had it screen printed on their 2013 season T-shirts.
With Nicholson in attendance to celebrate with them, new coach Austin Roark and the Comets outlasted host Kokomo to win their first sectional title since 1998 Thursday night, topping the Wildkats by 3.5 points, 124.5-121.
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Eastern, Kokomo favored in boys track sectional
Some of the names and faces have changed, but the plot remains much the same.
The Kokomo boys track and field sectional, much like last year, will likely be a two-horse race between the host and three-time defending champion Wildkats and Eastern, a team looking to break through and win its first sectional title since 1998. -
Cole to jump at Miami University
Eastern athlete Grant Cole has only been a long jumper for two seasons, but being turned on to the event late in his career has landed him a scholarship to Miami University.
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Comets roar to sectional title
As the old adage goes, it’s harder stay on top than it is to reach the top.
Eastern’s girls track and field team entered the 2012 postseason hoping to put in a strong enough effort to claim the program’s first sectional title.
Having done so, the Comets entered Tuesday’s postseason opener — the Madison-Grant Sectional — with a much larger bull’s-eye on their backs than in previous years.
Eastern proved up to the challenge, scoring a landslide victory to repeat as sectional champions with 125 points. -
Dexter leaving Eastern
Eastern girls basketball coach Jeremy Dexter has stepped down from the Comet program after accepting the AD job at Churubusco last week. Churubusco is in Whitley County about 15 minutes west of Fort Wayne.
Dexter led the Comets to a Class 2A state runner-up finish this past season. -
Hunter edges Shrout in Thunder Car thriller
Two drivers who are no strangers to Victory Lane returned there Sunday night at the Kokomo Speedway. Meanwhile, a third driver scored just the second feature win of his career at the local oval to highlight the racing action.
Chris Hunter, the winningest Thunder Car driver in the history of the local oval, ground out a gritty win over defending track champion Jason Shrout to highlight the chilly night. -
Girls track sectional is tonight
Eastern’s girls track and field team is ready to chase some more championship hardware.
Two weeks ago, the Comets won their fourth straight Howard County meet. Last week, they won their fourth straight Mid-Indiana Conference meet. Now, the postseason is here, with the Madison-Grant Sectional tonight.
“We’re looking forward to taking the next step,” Eastern coach Michael Goodspeed said. -
Athlete of the week
Oyler led the way as Class 2A No. 5-ranked Eastern beat Cass (4-3) and Hamilton Heights (5-4 in 12 innings) to move to 6-0 in the Mid-Indiana Conference with one league game remaining.
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Page family bonds over martial arts
A mother and father to six children, Jason and Denise Page began to run into your typical challenges associated with such a large family back in 2008, once the oldest children reached an age where they started to have desires to be involved in sports and other extracurricular activities.
As the commitments started to pile up, it didn’t seem like there were enough hours in the day to accomplish all the pitstops and still have time left over to fellowship as a family.
Karate to the rescue. -
Kats' Sebree to play for JC power Cochise
LaBradford Sebree is accustomed to winning.
Sebree was a three-year starter for Kokomo’s boys basketball team. He helped the Wildkats compile a 65-11 record (the seventh-best mark in Indiana over that stretch) with a Class 4A state runner-up finish in 2011.
The 6-foot-2 swingman hopes to keep on winning at the next level. He will play at Cochise College, a Division I junior college in Douglas, Ariz. Douglas is located in the southeast corner of the state. - More Sports Headlines
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