Columbus East look to have things in hand early in the fourth quarter of Saturday’ boys basketball game.
Southwestern (Hanover) came charging back.
The Rebels, ranked No. 7 in Class 2A, went on a 10-0 run toward the end of the fourth quarter, and were able to knock down their free throws down the stretch to hand the Olympians a 57-49 loss.
A couple big stats that stood out were turnovers and the perimeter shooting. East committed 16 turnovers to Southwestern’s 5, and the Olympians shot 6 for 24 from 3-point range to the Rebels’ 6 for 13.
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“The No. 1 thing is that you have to knock down shots, and we didn’t do a very good job of that,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “The second thing is, just too many turnovers … we tried to go inside, and we only got four fouls called, so either we are not going up strong enough or initiating contact and getting in there. That’s something that has to change. We have to get to the foul line.”
Another key stat was the free-throw shooting, with the Olympians (1-2) going 1 for 1 from the line and Southwestern going 13 for 19.
East jumped out to a 9-4 lead early in the first quarter. About midway through the opening quarter, one of the Rebels’ top players, Matthew Williams, had his knee buckle a bit while driving to the basket. Williams sat out briefly and then re-entered the game to try to give it a go, but the pain proved too much, and he returned to the bench with about three minutes remaining in the first quarter. He would not return to the game.
That did not faze Southwestern, which finished the first quarter on a 10-2 run to lead 14-11 at the end of one.
The Rebels momentum carried over into the second quarter when they widened the lead to 24-14 following a 10-3 scoring run. About midway through the second quarter, the Olympians fought back. They went on a run of their own to get back into the contest by finishing the first half on a 12-3 run to only trail 27-26 at the break.
East then took its first lead since the first quarter with a Daniel Murphy basket inside. A couple minutes later, Southwestern retook the lead with a Zach Cole layup to lead 31-30.
Later in the quarter, with the Rebels leading 34-32, Tyler Boyer drained a 3-pointer to give the Olympians a 35-34 lead. Several lead changes occurred down the stretch of the third quarter, but it was Southwestern that possessed the lead 43-39 following an Austin Kramer triple at the buzzer heading into the fourth quarter.
With around six minutes left in the fourth, a Pierce jumper and then a 3-pointer gave East a 46-43 lead. The Rebels came storming back with a 10-0 run to lead 53-46 with less than a minute left in regulation, and they were able to hang on for the win.
For East, Pierce had a game-high 21 points and Boyer finished with 13. For Southwestern, Foster Mefford scored 17 points, and Austin Kramer added 15.
“We have to stay focused for 32 minutes,” Boyer said. “Today, we had small patches where we weren’t focused and made silly mistakes, and they capitalized on it and got easy points. We have to stayed focused through the whole game to give ourselves a chance to win.”
