BLOOMINGTON — Columbus East gained momentum to start the second half of Saturday’s Bloomington South Sectional girls basketball championship against East Central.
However, the Trojans made one big push to regain the lead and never let up to give the Olympians a 49-39 season ending loss.
The loss marked the final games for East seniors Whitley Rankin and Katie Dougherty, who were both four-year members of the program. Rankin was the final piece of the starting five that won the sectional crown in 2018.
“It’s been fun all four years meeting all the girls, the new girls and the experiences and coaches and how they’ve supported me throughout the years,” Rankin said. “We got a sectional championship sophomore year, and that was good. Obviously, we couldn’t pull through tonight, but (Friday) night’s win (against Columbus North) was good, and I’ll take that with me. It’s been a good time for me, a good high school experience and just great people surrounding me.”
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Even though the Olympians (16-8) fell short, Dougherty still said it was a great season.
“We really had a great year. We really came together, especially how young we are,” Dougherty said. “I really enjoyed getting to know all of these girls, and it was one heck of a run.”
Rankin and Dougherty were both big integral parts to the team this season.
“They’re two special kids. It seems like they’ve been with us forever,” East coach Danny Brown said. “We don’t have the season we’ve had without them, and we don’t get to the championship game without their play (Friday) night. They’ve been great leaders and great representatives of Columbus East High School student athletes and great representatives of Columbus period. We’re so proud of them. They’re going to be hard to replace.”
East Central (22-5) was first to strike to jump out to a 12-4 lead. Columbus East’s top player Koryn Greiwe was quiet much of the first quarter from being face-guarded from Kyla Maxwell before finally got into the scoring column with two free throws and a basket to cut the lead to 12-8 after the first quarter.
The Olympians gained momentum to start the second quarter when a Greiwe 3-pointer and an Emma Jenkins basket inside gave them their first lead of the game at 13-12. The lead extended to 15-12 following a steal and layup at the other end from Rankin. Later in the quarter, a 3-point basket from Charsan McCory gave the Trojans the lead back at 17-15, but Greiwe responded with another 3 to retake the lead for the Olympians 18-17. East Central then responded to finish out the first half on an 8-3 run to lead 25-21 at the half.
Rankin came out hot to start the second half and drained a couple of 3s to help the Olympians start on a 10-0 run to lead 31-25. However, the Trojans scored the final five points of the third quarter to cut the deficit to 31-30 heading into the fourth.
East Central extended the lead to 35-30 to start the fourth. A Saige Stahl bucket with around 5:20 left to play made it 35-33, but that was the closest the Olympians would get as the Trojans made the final push to secure the victory.
Greiwe finished with a team-high 16 points, and Rankin added 11 for the Olympians. Freshman Gabby Dean grabbed eight rebounds.
Freshman Josie Trabel led the Trojans with 19 points and nine rebounds.
With as great a season the Olympians had, the future is very bright with 11 combined players that were freshmen and sophomores this season.
“They’re already good, but they’re only going to get better,” Rankin said. “Helping them keep calm in big games like this is big because it’s a whole new thing for them … keep supporting them and making sure that if you make a mistake, it’s OK, and keep pushing them forward because they’re going to be a great team.”
