On a day when many students across the state, including Columbus East, had the day off from school, the Olympian basketball team still went to work. And visiting Brown County made sure the Olympians had a tough day at the office.
In the end, East came away with a 79-69 victory, but the game was a tight battle throughout, with neither team leading by more than six until the Olympians reeled of 13 straight points in the middle of the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Once again, it was East sophomore Koryn Greiwe leading the charge, scoring 44 points, just one shy of the 45 that Allyson Bunch scored in 2011. Tuesday, Greiwe and her teammates had to grind and find a way to win.
“Brown County played really well. We were sloppy at the beginning of the game, and I don’t think we came in with a good mindset. We were all motivated to win so we had to get tough defensively, and we were able to do that in the last quarter,” Greiwe said.
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During the first three quarters, it was the Eagles (2-1) who consistently found the open player and hit shots, hanging right with the Olympians (4-0). Brown County only trailed East by one after the first quarter and two at the half. The Eagles played evenly with the home team in the third quarter, thus heading into the final eight minutes trailing 52-50.
“We have an experienced team that plays together,” Brown County coach Matt Roberts stated. “We trust each other, don’t rely on one particular player, and generally make good decisions. Overall, I’m happy with the way that we played. Other than that bad stretch in the last quarter, I thought we played well.”
The Eagles started the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run to lead 58-54 with just over six minutes remaining. But then East dug its heels in defensively. The Olympians caused Brown County to turn the ball over on five straight possessions, turning the game around in East’s favor.
The Olympians quickly went from down four to up nine.
After an Eagles timeout, they were able to fight back, cutting the lead back to four, but that is as close as they would get. From there, Greiwe iced the victory from the free-throw line. She nailed 16 of 17 from the line in the final quarter, and 21 of 23 for the game.
“Brown County is an experienced team, and honestly, I thought they deserved a better fate tonight,” East coach Danny Brown said. “They are an experienced team that outplayed us for 3 1/2 quarters. Defensively, we were not contesting shots early in the game, and they were hitting them. We were also without our four-year starter Whitley Rankin, and I think that hurt us. But Koryn willed us to win tonight. She, along with Brielle (Stevens), Heidi (Murphy), Kaitlyn (Carothers), and especially Emma (Jenkins), who came off the bench and didn’t come out again.”
And although the Olympians got the victory, their fifth straight to open the season, there is still a learning curve.
