After their longest losing streak in 15 years, the Columbus North girls were glad to be back on their home floor Saturday afternoon.
The Bull Dogs had dropped five in a row, all on the road, with the last three coming against ranked teams. But on Saturday, they had a get-well game in a 64-34 Conference Indiana victory against Terre Haute South.
“It’s very nice,” senior Annie Anderson said. “We’ve played some tough teams, but I think overall, it made us better. I think that’s better for the long run.”
Anderson and junior point guard Alexa McKinley led a balanced attack for the Bull Dogs (3-5, 1-1), each scoring 10 points.
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“It was definitely great to get back with a win,” McKinley said. “I don’t think we really lost any momentum because we were playing good teams, and we knew what was next. It was good to get a win at home.”
McKinley scored seven points in the first quarter to pace North to a 14-6 lead. The Bull Dogs build the advantage to 29-14 at halftime.
North enjoyed its biggest leads at 50-18 late in the third quarter and 52-20 at the end of three.
“The last five games, we’ve had some really good play, but we’ve had a few mistakes here and there, and with those opponents, those few mistakes end up costing you,” North coach Pat McKee said. “Today, I think we had stretches of good play. There were a few mistakes, but they didn’t cost us today. Hopefully, today is a really good building-block game so we can step forward and continue to play this well and even better.”
The Bull Dogs had no turnovers and forced the Braves (3-5, 0-1) into 15 turnovers in the first half. North did not commit its first turnover until 3:03 remained in the third quarter and finished with only four for the game.
“We’ve handled the ball pretty well,” McKee said. “Our guard play has been pretty good. We have to finish plays better. That’s been our big bugaboo, but we got some of that today.”
Sierra Norman scored nine points, and Kylah Lawson added eight points and 10 rebounds for the Bull Dogs. Tessa Lomax scored eight points in limited minutes after missing the past couple of games with an illness.
“I think we all played well together, and we got to incorporate a lot of other players that don’t normally play in the varsity games,” Anderson said. “It was good to be back in our home gym, and I think we had a lot of fun today.”
