Going into Wednesday night’s regular-season finale as a decided underdog against Class 4A No. 4 Floyd Central, Columbus East coach Brent Chitty tried to spread the floor to begin the game.
Unfortunately for the Olympians, they turned the ball over on their first two possessions and ended up falling behind 8-0. East played the Highlanders almost even from that point, but Floyd Central claimed a share of the Hoosier Hills Conference title with a 60-50 victory.
"They’re so long and so tall, we just wanted to see what would happen," Chitty said. "We had some good drives. We just had too many turnovers. We have to take care of the ball and try to get better shots."
The Highlanders (20-2, 6-1) got off to a sizzling start shooting the basketball. Jake Heidbreder scored 14 of their 16 first-quarter points and hit 6 of 7 3-pointers in a 20-point first half.
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Floyd Central went 8 of 13 from 3-point range in the first half and led 33-20 at the break.
"They just were on fire," Chitty said. "We didn’t get out and guard like we needed to get out and guard, and they knocked down some shots early."
The Highlanders built the lead to as many as 15 in the third quarter before the Olympians (11-10, 4-3) made a charge. A three-point play and a basket by Matt Frost cut the lead to 44-36 late in the third quarter, but Floyd Central’s Thomas Hibbard scored on a putback at the buzzer to push the lead back to 10.
East trailed 50-38 with 2:45 remaining before baskets by Frost, Drew Johnson and Frost again got the Olympians within 50-44 with 1:26 remaining. But from there, the Highlanders made 8 of 9 free throws to ice the game.
"I thought the second half, our kids got after it," Chitty said. "I thought we might have been a little tight early, but the second half, we were OK."
Frost led East with 15 points and four rebounds. Lakeevon Whedon added 11 points.
"We’re definitely not satisfied because come sectional, we can’t play like that," Frost said. "We have to come out and get the win. We just have to play like we did the second half the whole game, and then we can beat lots of teams."
The Olympians open Columbus North Sectional play at 6 p.m. Tuesday against Bloomington North.
"We have some things we have to work on and get ready for Bloomington North, and that’s what we’ll start doing (today)," Chitty said. "We know the teams we play are really good, so what we’re going to focus on is us — taking care of the basketball, blocking out, rebounding and finishing shots."
East fell 78-67 at Bloomington North on Jan. 26.
"We didn’t lost to them by that many," Frost said. "We can definitely play with them and beat them. We just have to run our stuff and play like we know that we can."
