When Columbus East and Bedford North Lawrence closed the regular season in football, the Olympians outscored the Stars 58-48 in a big offensive display.
Friday night, when those two teams met on the hardwood at East, it was another huge offensive display. The Olympians outlasted Bedford 77-75 for their first win of the season in the Hoosier Hills Conference opener.
“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game because they have a good offense, and we have a good offense, so we just had to get a couple stops here and there and make sure we kept scoring,” said sophomore Tyler Boyer, who lead East with a career-high 22 points. “I knew we had it in us because in practice, we always work on shooting. We shot the ball really well tonight, and we hit the open man for layups and moved the ball more on offense and got easy shots.”
After the first half featured nine lead changes and 12 ties, the Olympians (1-1, 1-0) pulled ahead 64-54 after three quarters. But the Stars (3-3, 0-1) came back to take a 73-72 lead on a Jathan Ritter 3-pointer with 52 seconds remaining.
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East’s Drew Johnson then scored on a driving layup, was fouled and converted the three-point play with 19 seconds left to give the Olympians a 75-73 lead.
“They started putting McCall (Ray) on me, and he’s a really tough defender,” Johnson said. “We knew he just kept sticking on me, so I couldn’t get the ball. Boyer was coming off a big screen, I set him a back-screen, and they switched. When they switched, I just called for the ball, and the big guy (6-foot-8 Lane Hawkins) came on me, and right there it was just a read. Once they switched, I knew it was either Boyer or me getting the ball.”
Bedford had a chance to tie, but Ritter, who led all scorers with 24 points, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 8.6 seconds remaining. Johnson then converted a one-and-one with 7.5 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.
Johnson finished with 21 points.
“We work on free throws all the time,” Johnson said. “Coach Chitty puts and emphasis on it, so knocking them down is just something I’ve been working on all summer was was something I had to do tonight.”
Matt Frost added 14 points and led the Olympians with five rebounds. Jacob Pierce chipped in nine points off the bench.
“I thought toward the end, we hit some nice shots, and those free throws by Drew were huge,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “Seniors have to step up, and then your young kids follow suit. I thought Boyer, Pierce and (Daniel) Murphy tonight were just huge.”
The Stars led 27-25 after a fast-paced first quarter and were ahead 42-41 in the closing seconds of the first half. But Pierce hit a 3-pointer to close the first half, and Johnson hit a 3 to begin the second half to spark an 8-0 rup and put East in control.
“From the time I was a freshman, we’ve been working on this offense, and all summer,” Johnson said. “Sometimes in practice, you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t want to keep doing this drill,’ but we kept working on our offense, and really, the guys just bought in. We got great passes, great back-doors for layups, and cutting was the key the first half.”
Chitty knows his team will have to get better on the defensive end.
“This team has a long way to go, and I told them that, and they know it,” Chitty said. “But they’re willing to put the work in. Defensively, we’re a train wreck right now. But offensively, we’re scoring the ball a little bit. We have to fine-tune.”
