MARTINSVILLE — Late in the third quarter Friday night, Columbus North had a 12-point lead at Martinsville and was cruising toward its first victory of the season.
The Artesians didn’t led the Bull Dogs get out of town easily, though. Martinsville rallied to take a one-point lead with 1:19 remaining before North scored the game’s final seven points to pull out a 55-49 win.
“We let it get a little closer than we should have, but we’ve been working hard in practice, and our toughness and how much we wanted it came through in the end,” North senior Madison White said. “It feels so good to get our first win. Everybody has been working really hard, and it feels good to get that excitement of pulling that close game out.”
White sank the go-ahead 3-pointer from the right corner with 32 seconds remaining. After the Artesians (2-1) missed a 3-pointer and a 2-pointer, the Bull Dogs’ Kylah Lawson converted both ends of a one-and-one with 14 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.
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White hit four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. She missed her first two 3-pointers before banking one in late in the first quarter.
“When it went in, I think it got us going, and other people hit shots as well,” White said. “We’ve been working on shooting in practice, shooting under pressure and shooting with people on us, and I think all of this did a lot better with that tonight, just shooting better with people close to us.
North (1-1) led 34-22 with 2:15 left in the third quarter when Martinsville turned up its full-court pressure. The Artesians went on a 10-0 run in a little more than a minute to cut the lead to 34-32.
The Bull Dogs pushed the lead back to 48-39 with 2:15 left in the game before Martinsville went on another 10-0 run to take a 49-48 lead and held that until White’s 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining.
Lauren Barker also hit four 3-pointers and led North with 17 points. Alexa McKinley scored eight points, and Lawson added six points and 14 rebounds. The Bull Dogs also got a couple of key baskets and rebounds off the bench from centers Andrea Justis and Emily Herndon.
“Lauren hit some 3s,” McKee said. “I thought Kylah’s free throws making it go from two to four were really important. Probably the most unsung tonight might be Alexa. Just her control of the game and understanding tempo, we thought Alexa played really terrific. We played nine kids, and every one of them gave us a lift somewhere along the way. It was a team win.”
North next will host Southport on Tuesday in a 6:30 p.m. varsity-only contest.
