When Columbus North hit the road for the final day of the Noblesville Tournament on Dec. 28, the Bull Dog players wore their warmups to the game.
North beat New Albany that day, and they’ve been wearing their warmups on game days ever since.
Friday night, the Bull Dogs won their fourth consecutive game, a streak that began with that victory against New Albany in the Noblesville tourney. They rolled to a 66-46 victory against visiting Mooresville.
“The superstition is that we’re not dressing up on game days,” sophomore point guard Reese Harmon said. “We’re wearing warmups and jeans, so I think that’s it. That’s the biggest key, I think.”
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North (10-4) took control from the onset. The Bull Dogs jumped out to a 13-2 lead and led 22-8 after one quarter.
North led by as many as 19 in the first half and enjoyed a 40-22 advantage at the break.
“We had a hot start, and a lot of credit to our defensive rebounding,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “I thought we came out really tough defensively rebounding the ball well, and we got some early transition points, which really got us going.”
The Bull Dogs went 7 of 11 from 3-point range in the first half. Sophomore Blake Barker hit three of those 3-pointers and scored 11 of his game-high 18 points in the opening two quarters.
“Our start was really big,” Barker said. “We came out with energy against their 1-3-1 zone, and we hit some shots. We got them down and forced them to go man(-to-man), and then we tore them up in man. So really, it was getting them out of their 1-3-1 because we knew they were strong in that.”
North led by as many as 23 in the third quarter and was up 54-36 after three quarters.
The Bull Dogs forced 13 turnovers and outrebounded the taller Pioneers (9-4) 29-27.
“The big key for us is our practices,” Barker said. “We’re really focusing and maintaining our practices. We’re really paying attention to the scouting report, which is huge for us, and we really give it everything we have on defense. We start everything on D, and we’re getting a lot of offense out of our defense.”
Harmon finished with 14 points for North. Nick Schiavello added 11 points and six rebounds, and Trenton Kelley scored 10 points.
“I thought we really pushed it in transition, which is one of our strengths,” Harmon said. “I felt like we passed really well, really unselfish, finding the extra pass and the greatest shot.”
