By Derek Trepanier
For The Republic
Falling behind early Friday night, the Columbus Christian girls basketball team was unable to battle back against Crosspointe Christian Academy, falling 46-29.
The Panthers pounced on the Crusaders early, starting the game on a 12-4 run en route to a 16-6 first-quarter lead.
“I think the girls just came out and started slow,” Columbus Christian coach Kay Jones said. “We weren’t rebounding. We weren’t getting back on their fast breaks. I think in the first quarter, we were trying to get into the swing of things, and we just couldn’t.”
Trailing 32-15 at the half, Jones told her girls at that they needed to dig in and play strong in the second half.
Playing with a tougher mentality to start the second half, the Crusaders (1-5) went on to outscore the Panthers 10-6 in the third quarter, led by the strong play of Kayla Jones, who scored four of her nine points in the period.
Columbus Christian was unable to complete a full comeback, but displayed hard-nosed defense to finish the game holding Crosspointe to eight points in the fourth quarter and only 14 second-half points.
“What I talked to the girls about is, we just need to believe in ourselves, making sure we make more crisp passes to one another and that they need to communicate,” Jones said.
Grace Lorimor led the Crusaders with 10 points. Kaitlyn Conrad and Sarah Lorimor contributed four points apiece.
