INDIANAPOLIS — Columbus North was without two key players Saturday at Class 4A No. 5 ranked Lawrence North, and that didn’t help the Bull Dogs’ cause.
Sophomore starting guard Annie Anderson missed the game because of sickness, and sophomore guard Chelsie Giesige was out with an injury. The Bull Dogs could have used their help in the 70-35 loss to the Wildcats.
“If we play like this against a lot of good people, we’ll have more games like this,” Columbus North coach Pat McKee said. “We’ve got to compete better, defend, rebound, push, make good reads and hit some shots. We have to do all the basic things. Today, when things went wrong, we did not respond appropriately, especially in the second half.”
The only lead for the Bull Dogs (3-2) came in the first couple minutes when they led 6-3. Lawrence North (7-0) took the lead with a 13-0 run and kept it for the rest of the game.
Columbus North trailed 24-12 heading into the second quarter, but used a a 9-0 run cut the Wildcats lead to four. Three 3-pointers by Lawrence North helped push the lead back to eight, but Columbus North still was in the game, trailing 34-25 at halftime.
“We defended pretty well for a short stretch (in the second quarter), and we rebounded for a short stretch,” McKee said. “The biggest issue was the lack of rebounding. How many times did Lawrence North get three, four, five shots? Eventually, they’re going to score.”
The Wildcats scored the first 10 points to start the third quarter and held the Bull Dogs to just 10 second-half points. Lawrence North outscored Columbus North 21-4 in the third quarter to jump out to a 55-29 lead.
The Wildcats scored on seven 3-pointers while the Bull Dogs had zero. Columbus North also struggled to score from the free-throw line in the second half. After hitting seven of eight free-throws in the first two quarters, the Bull Dogs made just four of its 12 second half free-throws.
“Against Franklin Central, we were 18 out of 19,” McKee said. “Today, it wasn’t as good. They’re teenagers. They need to focus and step up and hit them. We did the other day. Things were going good. Today, things weren’t going good.”
Tessa Lomax led Columbus North with seven points. Nadia Lomax, Liz Tynan and freshman Alexa McKinley all added six points.
