BLOOMINGTON — Twenty-four hours after making a spirited comeback against archrival Columbus North, Columbus East was faced with a similar challenge in Saturday night’s Bloomington South Sectional final.
The Olympians made a couple of mini-comebacks throughout the game to take leads on East Central. Then, when the Trojans went up by six points again with 3:21 remaining, the Olympians got back within four and had a chance to make it closer.
Friday night, the shots went down in that closing stretch for the Olympians. Saturday, they didn’t, and East Central pulled away for a 49-39 win.
That’s how cruel fate can be sometimes.
The Olympians gave it everything they had against the Bull Dogs. Their effort wasn’t any less against the Trojans, they just ran into a team that has been on a major roll throughout the tournament.
“(Friday) night, I think that took a lot of our legs and a lot of our effort,” Rankin said. “I think we still came out with effort, and we wanted it. We just couldn’t pull through at the end. We played hard, but we just couldn’t get it.”
The Olympians put together a strong season, finishing 16-8. They won 10 of their last 12 games.
“I feel like we had a great season,” Rankin said. “We improved so much since the beginning of the season. We were good at the beginning, but we just kept improving every practice, every game, learning from everything, and we got so much better, and they’re a young team. They’re only going to keep getting better.”
Rankin and fellow guard Katie Dougherty are the only seniors on this East team. Leading scorer Koryn Griewe is just a sophomore, and the team’s top four rebounders are freshmen.
“We have a talented group coming back, but we’re going to find out how much these two players meant to this program,” East coach Danny Brown said. “Everybody talked about, ‘Well, you guys will be good in two or three years,’ and I said, ‘No, we’re going to be good this year,’ and we were good this year. Winning nine of the last 10 going into the sectional and getting to the sectional final. We gave it everything we had tonight, but we have 11 players that are in there besides Katie and Whit coming back. It’s a talented bunch. If they continue to work hard, and they improve, we have a chance to have a special team here in the next year or two.”
Greiwe, who averaged 20 points a game, is looking forward to the next two years.
“I want to say ‘Thank you to our seniors, Kaitlyn and Whitley,” Greiwe said. “They helped us beat North, and that was our goal. Our goal was to win the sectional, but we have next year. We have a few years for this team to grow and come back strong next year.”
Ted Schultz is sports editor for The Republic. He can be reached at [email protected] or 812-379-5628.
