Midway through the fourth quarter, Whitley Rankin and Katie Dougherty checked out of the game for the final time in their high school regular season careers.
Prior to Tuesday night’s girls basketball contest against Southport, Columbus East honored its two girls basketball seniors, Rankin and Dougherty.
Rankin, Dougherty, and the rest of the Olympians came out with a lot energy early on, and that let them to jump out big on the Cardinals and eventually send Rankin and Dougherty home happy with a 77-42 win.
The victory gives East its 15th win for the first time in the regular season since the 2011-2012 season. The Olympians have won eight of the past nine games, including five in a row, heading into next week’s Bloomington South Sectional.
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“First of all, we talked after the Bedford game and how we set a goal to win out and win the last five games. We knew that was going to be tough,” East coach Danny Brown said. “We won eight of our last nine games, we’re on a roll right now, and finish strong. To beat a team like Southport that beat (Columbus) North earlier in the year by four, and beat Southport by 35 says a lot about how we’re playing right now.”
A four-year starter for the Olympians (15-7), Rankin is the lone remaining piece of the puzzle to the starting five that won the sectional championship in 2018, which was their first since 2011. Rankin plans to go to University of Southern Indiana and major in radiology.
“It’s been a lot of experiences, great times. There is some downs, but you always come up, and the coaches and the support we have and the teammates we have, it’s a great environment. It’s very fun,” Rankin said. “You have fun in practices, you have fun in games, and it’s just good-hearted people and having a great time.”
Dougherty also has been with the program for four years, and has been a starter the past two years. She plans to attend Purdue and major in engineering.
“It’s been a really good four years,” Dougherty said. “I really didn’t come in much until my junior year, but I had a lot of fun with these girls. I’ve made a lot of friends over the years. This is probably the best four years of basketball. I’m really grateful to be a part of this program and had met all these people and coaches.”
Southport led early 8-5 in the game, but then a steal from Rankin led to a Koryn Greiwe 3-pointer that tied the game at 8-8. That would kickstart a 17-3 East run that gave it a 25-11 lead after the first quarter.
The Olympians extended the lead to 32-11 early in the second quarter, but the Cardinals (12-11) had one last fight in them, cutting it to 38-23. But East made sure no comeback was made when it finished the quarter on an 11-0 run to lead 49-23 at the half.
Griewe finished with a game-high 25 points to lead East. Saige Stahl had 14, and Dougherty added 13.
The Olympians now have 10 days off and will face the winner of the Bloomington North-Columbus North game in the sectional semifinals at around 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7.
“From freshman year, I think I’ve grown as a leader and just leading by example. I bring a calmness to the team, which is what the coaches tell me, and I should bring that into sectional,” Rankin said. “I’ve been there once, and hopefully we can do it again, and do it again with these girls because they are all really young and have a bright future ahead of them.”
Dougherty agreed.
“We really came together at the end of the year and are putting it all together,” Dougherty said. “We look really good right now and have a lot of momentum going into the sectional.”
