INDIANAPOLIS — Columbus North was cruising along with a 16-point lead late in the third quarter Saturday afternoon, but had to survive a little bit of a scare to post its 11th win in the past 12 girls basketball games.
Host Perry Meridian cut the Bull Dogs lead to two points with 1:18 left in the game. But North made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 1:06 to post a 49-42 victory.
“Their press was making us make bad decisions,” North point guard Alexa McKinley said. “I think at the end, we needed to handle the pressure better, but the middle was pretty good.”
The Bull Dogs (14-4) committed six turnovers in the first quarter and eight in the final period. In the middle quarters, they had a total of only five turnovers.
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“We mishandled it early, but then we finally got our bearings and I thought did a really good job from that time until the late third, early fourth,” North coach Pat McKee said. “We had a long stretch of really good ball, and we want to continue to focus on that and keep doing that. We have a few things to clean up early and a few things to clean up late, but the middle was really good, and I’m pleased with that.”
Leading 16-14 midway through the second quarter, the Bull Dogs scored the final eight points of the first half and the first two of the second half to take a 26-14 lead. They build the lead to 37-21 on a Madison White 3-pointer with 2:45 left in the third quarter.
From there, the Falcons (8-10) started chipping away at the lead. They started forcing turnovers with their full-court press and half-court trap.
“We definitely thought that we did have a rocky start,” said Nadia Lomax, who led North with 12 points. “We didn’t really be expect them to be pressing every possession at the end, so that’s kind of why we ended up going a little downhill.”
Perry Meridian cut the lead to 44-42 with 1:18 remaining. But then McKinley converted a one-and-one with 1:06 left, Lomax hit two free throws with 46 seconds remaining and Sierra Norman added a free throw with 27 seconds left to ice it.
“Hitting those were pretty big,” Lomax said. “That kind of happened (in Thursday’s win) at Jennings County, as well. Me and Alexa were able to make our free throws, and that’s something that’s kind of come in handy these past few games.”
McKinley finished with 11 points and seven rebounds for the Bull Dogs. Annie Anderson added 10 points, all in the first half.
Caitie Baird, a 6-foot-3 Stanford volleyball recruit, posted game-highs of 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocked shots to lead the Falcons.
