The Columbus North boys basketball team pushed Class 4A No. 3 Cathedral close to the brink in Saturday night’s boys basketball contest.
A big difference in the game came down to free throws.
The Irish closed out the game hitting 10 free throws in a row to hand the Bull Dogs a 64-57 loss.
When it looked like the game could have gotten away from North in the second quarter, the Bull Dogs came back and made it an extremely tight game.
“It was a great basketball. It was an exciting game to coach in,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “Cathedral is an outstanding team, and I was very proud of the effort that we played with. I think we got it to within one point in the second half, and we had some chances but just fell short in the end.”
The game stayed tight early in the first quarter with the Irish (14-1) leading 13-10 until they went on a 6-0 run to end the first quarter to lead 19-10.
After Cathedral hit a 3-pointer to open the second quarter, the Bull Dogs (9-4) came back with a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 24-17. After the Irish got a couple baskets to lead 29-17, and the Bull Dogs called a timeout. Following the timeout, the momentum for the rest of the second quarter belonged to North. The Bull Dogs went on a 10-0 run that was capped with a three-point-play from Blake Barker with less than 10 seconds left to trail only 29-27 at the break.
Cathedral started the third quarter on an 8-2 run to extend its lead to 37-30. North came back again to only trail 46-42 after the quarter.
The Bull Dogs cut it to only a one-point deficit after Barker hit two free throws to make it 51-50. After both teams traded baskets with the Irish leading 54-52, the Irish fended off North’s comeback try by sinking 10 straight free throws to seal the win.
“We made some good defensive adjustments throughout the game, but we felt like we settled for a lot of long 3s instead of getting to the rim,” Ferguson said. “They were 15 of 16 from the line. We were 8 of 11. They’re a really good free-throw shooting team.”
Barker finished with a team-high 17 points, while Reese Harmon scored 14 and Cooper Horn added 13 to lead the Bull Dog scoring. Vincent Brady had a game-high 21 points for Cathedral.
