CROWN POINT — How a team handles adversity shows its true character.

The Crown Point girls have been lacking character lately and it was the problem again in a 43-25 championship loss to Martinsville at Saturday’s Crown Point Shootout.

“We always play hard as long as things are going well, but as soon as a few things go wrong, we put our heads down and we became what we call soft,” said Crown Point Coach Tom May. “The key is how you react to adversity and we haven’t been handling it well lately.

“There are going to be some changes because I’m not going to let this continue happening. There has to be some accountability from the players.”

Crown Point was right there with the Artesians (9-5) going into the fourth quarter tied at 25. But the Bulldogs (8-5) went scoreless in the final quarter as Martinsville’s defense took over.

“We mixed up our defenses the whole game and the pressure 1-2-2 worked the best,” Martinsville Coach Vince Cerbone said. “We closed off the high post and there weren’t getting any good looks inside.

“It forced them to take the outside shot and fortunately, they weren’t hitting them.”

Crown Point didn’t have an answer for Martinsville’s Mandy Geryak and Danielle Mitchell. Each scored 14 points, with Mitchell scoring all of her points in the fourth quarter.

“She is just that kind of a streaky shooter,” Cerbone said of Mitchell. “It is amazing how easy she makes it look when she gets into a rhythm.”

Cassie Pruzin led Crown Point with 10 points while Alex Webster had nine. Other than those two, no one else really looked to shoot the ball. The Bulldogs had only 10 field goals in the loss.

“I had one kid (Webster) who was looking to score and they put a chaser on her to make her take hard shots,” May said. “If you have that happen, someone else has to step up and it didn’t happen. Our three’s and four’s (forwards and center) have to start scoring for us.”