Both Greensburg and Columbus East were coming off firsts heading into Saturday night’s game at The Orange Pit.
The Pirates suffered their first defeat of the season to Fishers its last time out, while the Olympians won their first game of the year over Evansville Central in their previous contest.
Unfortunately for East, the visiting Class 3A No. 5 Pirates returned to their winning ways, handing the Olympians a 72-54 defeat.
Both teams came out firing from long range to open the game. Greensburg (5-1) and East (1-5) combined to sink nine 3-pointers in an up-and-down, high-scoring period. The Pirates’ Colin Comer did the majority of the damage, nailing three from long range. Lane Sparks also hit two from deep on his way to a 20-point first half. The Olympians spread the wealth from behind the arc, with four different players hitting 3s. At the end of the quarter, it was Greensburg on top 23-16.
The Pirates continued to stretch their advantage early in the second quarter. A Sparks bucket put Greensburg up 33-18 midway through the period. A Tyler Boyer basket ended the Pirates’ 17-3 run and began an East run. The Olympians scored the next six points to cut the lead to 33-24. From there, each team matched baskets allowing Greensburg to take a 39-29 lead into halftime.
After the break, the Olympians made a defensive adjustment to slow Sparks down, holding him to eight second half points. His teammates more than made up for it, however. Ki Dyer scored all of his nine points in the second half, and Brenden Stanley contributed eight. This was more than enough for the Pirates to pull away from East. By the end of the third period the Greensburg lead had ballooned to 53-37.
After scoring 29 first half points, the Olympians were held to just eight in the third quarter.
“We did not shoot the ball as well as we have been tonight,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “Against a good team like Greensburg, you can’t miss layups and then allow them to go on runs like they did.”
The Pirates extended their lead to 57-37 just one minute into the fourth quarter. A 3-pointer by Will Riekers cut the lead to 17, but that is as close as the Olympians would get the rest of the way.
Tyler Boyer led East with 18 points. Rieckers contributed 10.
“They out-toughed us in the second half tonight. They won all of the 50-50 balls. They got all of the tough rebounds and second chances. We have to be fundamentally tougher. By that, I mean we have to dive for the loose balls, hit our layups, and make our free throws. We did not do that tonight, and I’m not going to miss when we don’t do those things,” Chitty said.
