A part of history was made for the Columbus East girls basketball team Thursday night.
The Olympians already had clinched at least a share of the Hoosier Hills Conference, but they were hungry for more.
Mission accomplished for the Olympians, who won their first HHC title since the 2007-08 season, and their first time finishing unbeaten in the conference since 2005-06 with a 72-64 win over Jennings County.
“It really shows what hard work can do, the commitment and dedication. They’ve done it all year, and they wanted this one bad to win (conference) outright,” East coach Danny Brown said. “We don’t have a senior in the program. We started four sophomores and a junior. We feel pretty good where we’re at now. I’m so proud of this team and this program of what we’ve done so far. Now, we’ve got to finish it. We’ve been fortunate that we’re still playing. We have two games left, and then be ready to play in one of the toughest sectionals in the state.”
Sophomore Leah Bachmann was a force for the Olympians (12-5, 7-0) finishing with a game-high 22 points. With the Panthers defense focusing much of the inside on Gabby Dean, it gave Bachmann a chance to shine, and she didn’t disappoint.
“We were moving the ball around a lot, and inside, we were cutting and we had a lot of high-lows,” Bachmann said. “The defense was focused on Gabby, so we were able just to drop it into me.”
Brown added, “I thought Leah was the difference in the game tonight. She’s proven she’s an All-Conference player, and Leah is definitely deserving of being All-Conference this year, especially going 7-0.”
Brown said this was the first time since the HHC began crowning a girls basketball champion in 1977 that both the East varsity and JV programs finished unbeaten in the conference.
“We talked about it since the season started, and it’s always been one of our goals,” Bachmann said. “It was something us and coach Brown, it was always something we all wanted. It’s really exciting to be able to finally meet that goal.”
East got a boost in transition offensively early in the first quarter, and it helped the Olympians build a 13-6 lead. Jennings (12-6, 4-2) came back with a 3-pointer from Addyson Kent to spark an 8-2 run to finish the quarter trailing only 16-15.
East had a 28-21, but Bachmann converted a three-point-play to push the lead to 31-21. After the teams traded baskets to make it 33-23, Kent buried two big 3-pointers during a 10-0 run to tie the game at 33-33 in the closing seconds of the first half, but Koryn Greiwe sank a running 3-pointer from just inside half court to give the Olympians a 36-33 lead at the break.
Brown made his defensive adjustments to make sure Kent would barely touch the ball the rest of the game. Brown had Albany Speer tightly guard Kent, and Speer did her job, and Kent made only one 3-pointer in the second half after making four in the first half.
The Panthers eventually cut the lead to 66-64 following a 3-pointer from Kali Thompson to cap off a 15-5 run. East was able to secure the win with six free throws down the stretch.
“We played hard. They were two runs that East went on that extended it to 10 or so, and I thought we fought back both times. As we made our runs, we also made some poor decisions,” Jennings coach Kristi Sigler said. “We talked about controlling the tempo, and we didn’t control the tempo, and we didn’t control possessions, and those possessions are what really hurt us.”
Greiwe and Saige Stahl added 16 points apiece for the Olympians. Juliann Woodward finished with a team-high 21 points for the Panthers, while Kent scored 15 and Lily Ernstes added 14.
“I’m super-proud of this team,” Greiwe said. “We have worked hard this whole year, and this was one of our goals, and we met that goal, which is super-exciting. I’m so proud of us tonight. We played that entire game hard.”
