Columbus East girls basketball coach Danny Brown had a chance to coach Jeffersonville’s Nan Garcia this summer when he was an assistant coach for the Indiana Junior All-Stars.
Saturday afternoon, Garcia was on the opposite side as Brown and the Olympians, and that wasn’t good news for the hosts. Garcia posted game-highs of 25 points and 13 rebounds to lead the visiting Class 4A co-No. 9 Red Devils to a 61-42 win in a battle of the final two remaining Hoosier Hills Conference unbeatens.
“I was fortunate enough to help coach her in the Junior All-Stars this year, so I knew how good she was,” Brown said. “She’s going to Penn State because she’s a great player. She’ll be an (Indiana) All-Star, and she just dominated the game. She has so much strength and experience and skill. We tried, but the game got away from us there with the spurt that she had.”
East (7-4, 1-1) led 9-7 with just over three minutes left in the first quarter. But then Garcia hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 13-0 Jeffersonville run to end the quarter.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Saige Stahl stopped the bleeding for the Olympians with a basket to open the second quarter. But then the Red Devils (9-2, 5-0) scored nine consecutive points before Stahl hit a free throw with three-tenths of a second left in the first half, and Jeffersonville led 29-12 at the break.
The Red Devils held high-scoring East point guard Koryn Griewe scoreless in the first half. Greiwe, who entered the week leading the state in scoring, hit a free throw in the third quarter and a basket in the fourth to finish with a season-low three points.
“Koryn is working hard,” Brown said. “Defenses are keying on her. When you’re the state’s leading scorer at 30 a game, they’re going to devise other ways to stop her, and that’s what happened. She keeps working hard, and she’ll get there.”
Freshman Gabby Dean led the Olympians with 12 points. Stahl, also a freshman, added nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.
“I thought Gabby Dean and Saige Stahl played very well today on the offensive and defensive end,” Brown said. “They gave a great effort.”
