Staff Reports
FLOYDS KNOBS — Columbus East kicked off the girls basketball season Saturday afternoon with a 52-22 Hoosier Hills Conference win at Floyd Central.
The Olympians jumped out to a 14-7 lead after one quarter, but led only 20-14 at halftime. East then pulled away in the second half.
“We got off to a good start in the first quarter,” East coach Danny Brown said. “We didn’t execute very well in the second quarter, but the second half, we settled down a little bit and played really well as a team. We just played great team defense throughout the entire game.”
Albany Speer scored a career-high 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field to lead the Olympians.
“Albany shoots lights out in practice, and today, she transferred that over to the game,” Brown said. “She had a good floor game. Eighteen points and no turnovers — that’s a heck of a game. She was actually in a little bit of foul trouble, but poured it on in the second half. She really played well.”
Greiwe added 14 points, seven rebounds, six assists and seven steals for East. Gabby Dean had eight points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots; Emma Jenkins added seven points and eight rebounds and Leah Bachmann had four points and eight rebounds.
Dean played about 29 of the 32 minutes in the absence of fellow post players Saige Stahl and Katilyn Carothers.
“Gabby was just the anchor of the defense,” Brown said. “She did a nice job of just a good balance of offense and defense. She had a really good game. To win the first game of the year on the road, a conference game and not being at full strength, I’m happy with the result.”
