Lions’ size too much for Crusaders in semifinal

LAFAYETTE — Columbus Christian boys basketball had its struggles stopping the inside game of Bloomington Lighthouse Christian Academy in Saturday’s Indiana Christian Schools Athletic Association semifinal game at Faith Community Center.

The Lions built a double-digit lead, and the Crusaders couldn’t recover in a 68-45 loss.

“Size is one thing that’s killed us this year,” Columbus Christian coach Kevin Roth said. “We don’t have that big, physical stature of guys, and that killed us. I thought we turned the ball over too much, and our shot selection wasn’t very good, either. (Lighthouse) would get offensive rebounds, and those usually didn’t end well.”

The Lions (5-16) built a 11-2 lead early before the Crusaders (11-17) answered with a basket from C.J. Reed. After Lighthouse converted a three-point play, the Columbus Christian finished the first quarter on a 4-2 run to cut the lead to 16-8 after one period.

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The Lions built a 22-12 lead midway through the second quarter, but the Crusaders answered back with seven straight points to make it 22-19. Lighthouse, however finished the half on an 8-3 run jump out to a 30-22 halftime lead.

In the fourth quarter, Columbus Christian made a bit of a comeback with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 43-39, but the Lions put the game away for good with a 9-0 spurt, and Columbus Christian couldn’t generate any offense to come back.

“We had this opportunity here to compete for a state championship and just kind of let it slip anyway,” Roth said. “We’ve won two state championships, but none of them have come in this building. We played several times here at Faith. We come up and lose the first game. We had it down to three at one point and thought we had a chance there, but then they would come back and get a layup.”

Reed finished with a game-high 22 points and Conner Emily added eight for the Crusaders.

Roth brings back a majority of the team for next season.

“We have some size from the eighth-graders,” Roth said. “One thing this summer is, we’ll have to go to the gym, maybe not for work so much on our basketball skill, but much more about getting stronger.”