Columbus North started its girls basketball summer season with a close loss to a defending state champion and ended it with its best game of the month.
The Bull Dogs had a productive period inbetween those two bookends, as well. They went 13-8 during the June period in which coaches are allowed to work with their teams in practice and game settings.
“We played several really good people and played some games that we lost that we could have won had we cleaned up some things,” North coach Pat McKee said. “The bottom line is, the same crucial points that were crucial for us last year will be crucial for us again. If we can make free throws and block out and defend consistently well, we’ll have a good team.”
McKee said the Bull Dogs had four games where free-throw shooting may have cost them a victory. But he did said there was one game in late June where they made 27 of 31 on free throws, which helped them win that game.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
North opened its summer season with a 44-40 overtime loss at Northwestern, which has several key pieces back from its Class 3A state championship team. The Bull Dogs also fell to Brownsburg at that Northwestern Shootout before winning a pair of games in the All-Star Shootout at Ben Davis.
At the Vanderbilt team camp, North went 2-3 against teams from Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio and Tennessee. The Bull Dogs fell by two points to Atlanta Holy Innocents, which was state runner-up in its class last season.
North went 3-1 in the Lafayette Legacy Shootout, falling to a Danville (Illinois) Schlarman team that has a Notre Dame recruit and was a state champion in Illinois. The Bull Dogs then went 4-1 in the USI Team Camp and 2-1 at the Whiteland Shootout, finishing with a 64-46 win against Charlestown.
“We finished right because we played really well in the last game,” McKee said. “We defended very well, we rebounded and we made shots. You do those three things, you’re going to be pretty good.”
North has only two returning full-time starters in Annie Anderson and Tessa Lomax, who will be juniors. Nadia Lomax, who will be the lone senior, also started some games.
Incoming junior Chelsi Giesige, who missed nearly all of last season with an injury, and incoming sophomore point guard Alexa McKinley were the other starters for North this summer. Incoming juniors Sierra Norman and Kaylyn Bates also played with the varsity.
Six other players split time between North’s White (varsity) and Blue (JV) teams in June — incoming junior Riley Eder; incoming sophomores Hannah Bramlett, Madison White and Kanon Matsuno and incoming freshmen Kylah Lawson and Audrey Giesige.
“We did some good stuff,” McKee said. “We did some stuff that could have been better. Hopefully, we’ll continue to do the good stuff and improve on the stuff that should have been better.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
This is the fifth of a six-day series recapping the summer basketball season for Bartholomew County teams. The schedule:
Monday: Columbus East boys
Tuesday: Columbus North boys
Wednesday: Hauser boys
Thursday: Columbus East girls
Today: Columbus North girls
Saturday: Hauser girls
[sc:pullout-text-end]
