JEFFERSONVILLE — Columbus East played one its best quarters of the season Saturday against one of the top teams in the Hoosier Hills Conference and led 20-2 after eight minutes at Jeffersonville.
Unfortunately for the Olympians, the Red Devils made an even bigger run.
Jeffersonville came back to eventually take the lead in the third quarter and made a late run in the fourth to hand East a 46-37 girls basketball loss.
The Red Devils found a way defensively to double- and sometimes triple-team point guard Koryn Greiwe to slow down the offensive rhythm of the Olympians. In the end, it proved to be effective.
Greiwe finished with a hard-earned 15 points, and Sarah Park added 10 for East. Nan Garcia led Jeffersonville with 15.
“We get out to a 20-2 lead against one of the top teams on their home floor and couldn’t close the deal,” East coach Danny Brown said. “We had too many missed opportunities, even with the 20-2 lead. (Jeffersonville) really amped up the defensive pressure on us and kept denying about anything we wanted to do.”
The Olympians (5-4, 1-1) came out with a lot of defensive intensity that the Red Devils (7-4, 3-1) didn’t expect. East forced a lot of turnovers early and took advantage. A Park 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Olympians the 20-2 first quarter lead.
Jeffersonville then turned the tables on East and matched the intensity in the second quarter. After a Greiwe free throw extended the lead to 21-2, the Red Devils scored 15 unanswered points to close out the first half to cut the Olympians lead to 21-17.
Jeffersonville scored the first seven points of the second half to take a 24-21 lead. Later in the quarter, a pair of Whitley Rankin free throws tied the game at 25-25, and East finished the quarter on a 6-1 run to lead 31-26 heading into the fourth.
The Red Devils retook the lead 32-31 to start the fourth quarter, but Rankin sank a 3-pointer to give the Olympians the lead back at 34-32 with just over five minutes left in the game. It ended up being their final lead.
Jeffersonville went on an 8-0 run and had enough cushion to seal the win.
“We fought back and got the lead, but then we had a couple of possessions where we rushed some things instead of bringing it back out and getting a good shot,” Brown said. “We did a lot of good things, though. We tweaked our defense a bit and held Garcia in check for a while. When you hold a team like that to 46, you probably should have won the game. We feel like we let one slip away.”
