INDIANAPOLIS — Columbus North couldn’t overcome its foul trouble and poor free-throw shooting in its boys basketball season opener Tuesday at Heritage Christian.
The Bull Dogs shot 12 of 23 from the charity stripe in the 58-53 loss. North held a 26-21 halftime lead, but the Eagles opened the third quarter on a 7-0 run to tie the game and started the fourth quarter with a two point lead.
“We’re a young team,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “I thought in the third quarter, we panicked a little bit. They got on a little bit of a run, we panicked, picked up some bad fouls and gave them some momentum.”
Blake Barker, who led the Bull Dogs with 16 points, picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter and had to start the fourth on the bench. Five of North’s players ended the game with four fouls, and Ferguson said the foul trouble caused them to play zone longer than he wanted.
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The Bull Dogs still had a chance to steal the game late, despite hitting just one 3-pointer in the final two quarters. North trailed by eight with a 1:30 remaining before cutting the lead to four with 48 seconds left.
The Bull Dogs had a couple missed free-throws down the stretch, but Barker put up a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left that would have cut the lead to one had it gone in. It bounced off the rim, and Heritage Christian held on for the win.
“They’re a senior-heavy team, and their guards had really good composure down the stretch so credit to them,” Ferguson said of the Eagles. “You could tell that we were younger, and we just panicked a little bit in the third.”
Reese Harmon scored 13 points for North. Nicholas Schiavello added 10.
