For Columbus East, a strong second half couldn’t quite make up for a slow first half.
The Olympians fell behind by 15 points in the second quarter and rallied to within one in the final minute, but Jeffersonville held on for a 52-48 win in a battle for first place in the Hoosier Hills Conference boys basketball race.
“I’m not going to blame anybody but ourselves,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “I thought the first 16 minutes, we didn’t really put up much of an effort. I thought the second half, we just absolutely played our hearts out, did things well, executed better, played better defense, blocked out better. But the first 16 minutes wasn’t really good for the Olympians, and our guys just have to understand you’re not not going to win a sectional if you don’t play 32 minutes-plus.”
The Olympians (6-9, 2-2) trailed 26-11 late in the first half and 30-16 in the opening minute of the second half before they slowly began whittling away at the lead. They cut it to 47-46 on a basket by Beck Kelley with 1:05 left in the game.
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After a pair of Red Devil free throws pushed the lead back to three, Kelley scored on a driving layup and was fouled with 29 seconds left. But he missed the free throw and Jeffersonville (10-5, 4-1) rebounded.
The Red Devils’ Jaylen Fairman made a pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining to push the lead to 51-48. East then missed a driving layup, and Fairman made another free throw with 15 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.
“These kids don’t quit,” Chitty said. “They’ll play hard. They have to do it from the tip to the final horn. I was pleased in the second half defensively. I thought we did a pretty decent job, and then offensively, we had good looks. We executed, and we just didn’t knock them down. You have to hit shots; you have to hit free throws.”
Guards Drew Johnson, who fouled out with 2:03 remaining, and Kelley each scored 10 points to lead the Olympians. Matt Frost grabbed 11 rebounds to lead East to a 29-24 advantage on the boards.
The setback was the second tough HHC loss in four days for the Olympians, who fell to New Albany 44-42 on Saturday.
“We’re going to look at the film,” Chitty said. “I want to them to see what they’re really doing and what they’re not doing. The frustrating part for all of us is that we just think we’re better than we’ve played the last couple games. We think we can play 32 minutes-plus. It’s just been in spurts, so that’s just something we’re going to have to work on.”
