Columbus North will have more challenging games in its tournament next week and in the January portion of its girls basketball schedule.
Tuesday night was all about getting better. The Bull Dogs had little trouble in rolling to their sixth consecutive win, a 65-23 victory against Indianapolis Attucks. Fifteen girls played, and 13 scored for North.
“It was a great opportunity to do build toward some things,” North coach Pat McKee said. “The trick is getting better. If we think we’re there now, that’s not going to be good enough. You have to continue to get better every practice, every game. If we do, I like our team.”
The Bull Dogs (9-2) led only 7-2 midway through the first quarter, but extended the lead to a 18-2 at the end of the first period behind seven points apiece from Jenna Borger and Tessa Lomax.
North built the margin to 32-4 with three minutes left in the first half. The Bull Dogs led 40-9 at halftime.
“The very beginning of the game, we were a little sluggish, but after the first timeout, I thought we played pretty well for the rest of the first quarter and the second quarter,” McKee said. “We worked on a couple things. There was far more good than bad, and we’re going to build on this and use it as one more steppingstone toward the goals we have.”
McKee used most of his bench in the second and third quarters and used primarily junior varsity players throughout the fourth quarter. Two JV players — sophomore Riley Eder and freshman Kanon Matsuno — saw their first varsity action.
Borger and Nadia Lomax each finished with 11 points to lead North. Nadia Lomax grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Bull Dogs to a 36-23 advantage on the boards.
“We were able to work on a couple plays that we had put in recently,” Nadia Lomax said. “We had a chance to work on it in a game with some pressure, and we also got to work on some defense.”
The Bull Dogs visit Terre Haute North on Thursday before hosting the eight-team Subway/Columbus North Invitational Dec. 28 to 29.
“I think our energy was really good throughout the game,” Nadia Lomax said. “We kind of had a lull at the beginning, and then we kind of picked it up. We definitely can play so much better, and we really need to this last part of December.”
