SHELBYVILLE — Columbus East and Shelbyville were mostly even on the scoreboard during three of the quarters of Tuesday’s boys basketball game.
The second quarter told a different story.
The Golden Bears starting hitting their shots in the second quarter to spark a 20-4 run, and the Olympians couldn’t recover in a 77-60 loss.
The score was tied 16-16 with the first quarter was starting to wind down until Luke Asher hit a jumper just inside the 3-point line to give Shelbyville an 18-16 lead.
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Asher continued his momentum in the second quarter, scoring 12 of the 20 points in the 20-4 run. The Golden Bears led 38-22 with the second quarter winding down and possessed a 43-27 halftime lead.
“We didn’t hit any shots, and we have to do a better job of defending,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “Right now, we’re struggling there’s no doubt about it. We just have to work through it. I like our guys. We just have to keeping working.”
The Olympians (3-5) kept fighting in the second half, but couldn’t string together a significant scoring run to erase the first half hole. Every time when it looked like East would gain momentum, Shelbyville (5-7) answered right back with a basket.
The closest that the Olympians got was early in the fourth quarter when they started on a 10-5 to make it 61-46 after they trailed 56-36 after the third quarter. However, the Golden Bears were able to knock down their free throws to push the lead to 69-48.
Tyler Boyer finished with a team-high 17 points and Matt Frost and Drew Johnson added 13 and 12, respectively, for East. For the Golden Bears, Army commit Zach Kuhn finished with a game-high 26 points, and Asher scored 21.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Olympians with back-to-back road trips at Bloomington South, a potential sectional opponent, Friday and at Hoosier Hills Conference foe Seymour on Saturday.
“We have a tough stretch, and we have Jeffersonville coming up, too (on Jan. 19),” Chitty said. “We have a tough schedule. It won’t be easier, but we have to be better.”
