The Columbus North girls basketball team put away this game in a hurry in its regular season finale against Conference Indiana foe Terre Haute North Saturday afternoon.
The Patriots weren’t much of a threat in the Bull Dogs’ quest for the conference title. They claimed a 59-18 victory to finish unbeaten in the conference.
“It’s awesome,” Columbus North senior Alexa McKinley said. “We love it. This was one of our goals for the season, so it’s great that we completed that.”
Saturday also was the final home game for seniors McKinley, Madison White, Emily Herndon and Kanon Matsuno.
“It was sad, but it reminded me of all the great memories that I’ve had with this team and on this court,” White said. “It was fun. It was good the four of us seniors got to play together on the court in the fourth quarter, so that was a really good memory.”
The Bull Dogs (11-5, 5-0) jumped ahead 17-3 after the first quarter. They were up 22-5, and later in the second quarter, a couple of 3s from Terre Haute North (14-8) cut it to 26-15, but McKinley silenced the Patriots with a 3-pointer right before halftime to lead 29-15.
Columbus North put away the game in the third, outscoring Terre Haute North 17-1, prompting coach Pat McKee to sub out his four seniors one-by-one in the fourth quarter.
McKinley finished with a game-high 15 points, and Kylah Lawson added 11 for the Bull Dogs.
McKinley and Lauren Barker accomplished a major feat in Columbus North athletics by becoming undefeated Conference Indiana champions in two different sports after winning the title in girls soccer last fall.
The Bull Dogs will face a familiar opponent in its opening game of the East Central Sectional on Tuesday when they take on Bloomington South, a team they beat 57-40 six days ago.
“Bloomington South is a good team, and we definitely have to play really well,” White said. “This game was important to carry our momentum over, but now our focus has shifted to Bloomington South.”
McKinley added, “We just have to be able to adjust to what they come at us with because they’re definitely going to change things from what they did the last game.”
