Class 2A South Decatur stayed with 4A Columbus North for a quarter-and-a-half Wednesday night, but after that, the Bull Dogs’ athleticism and depth took over.
North used a 14-4 run late in the first half to take control, then used an 11-2 second-half run to break the game open and went on to post an 82-50 victory.
“I think they definitely wore us down,” South Decatur coach Kendall Wildey said. “When you’re bigger, faster and stronger, over 32 minutes, that kind of comes into play. I thought we came to accept the challenge. I thought we played hard and tried to compete. It’s a good experience for us to play this level of competition and see what we have to do.”
The Cougars (8-6) were within 26-24 with four minutes left in the first half. At that point, Lane Lauderbaugh and Hunter Johnson with 12 points each had done all of South Decatur’s scoring.
But the Bull Dogs (10-4) got a 3-pointer from Blake Barker to spark the 14-4 run. Jakub Trusina hit a pair of 3-pointers and a 2-pointer to push the lead to 40-28, and North led 40-30 at the break.
“They were kind of focusing especially on Blake and Cooper (Horn),” Trusina said. “Whenever they’d drive inside the paint, they just threw it out, and I was pretty much wide open ready to shoot, and I just knocked it down. That’s what I do, I guess.”
The Cougars still were within 46-37 with 1:45 left in the third quarter when the Bull Dogs pulled away. They used 3-pointers from Barker, Trusina and Sam King to finish the quarter on a 9-2 run, then got a basket and a 3-pointer from Reese Harmon early in the fourth to put the game on ice.
“We had a spell there in the third quarter where we got it in single digits, and it seemed like we could not get a shot to go, and all of a sudden, they went on their 3-point splurge there and hit four or five 3-pointers in a row and the lead ballooned pretty quickly,” Wildey said.
Barker finished with game-highs of 24 points and 13 rebounds.
“It was a very fun game,” Barker said. “I was excited to hear we got them on the schedule. I love their style of play, and I wanted to play in that game. We got out in transition and moved the ball well. We’re starting to come together and play really well as a team.
Harmon scored 15 points for North. Trusina finished with 13, King added 10 and Horn had eight.
The Bull Dogs shot 50 percent (31 of 62) from the field, and were just under by going 9 of 19 from 3-point range.
“We shot the ball well tonight,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “I loved our effort on the offensive glass. We were in a little bit of foul trouble, but we played our big lineup and got a few stops, and then Blake hit that 3 in the corner which I felt like kind of broke it open.”
Lauderbaugh led the Cougars with 23 points and eight rebounds. Johnson added 14 points and seven rebounds.
South Decatur shot only 3 of 19 from 3-point range.
“South Decatur is a very well-coached team, and Lauderbaugh and Johnson are hard to guard,” Ferguson said. “I was really focused on trying to take away their 3-point game, and as a team, they only hit three 3s tonight. So I think defensively, we had a few struggles in the first half, but the second half, we really tightened them up, and to be able to hold a team like that to three 3s, that was big for us because those guys can shoot the basketball.”
The Cougars will make a return trip to Columbus tonight to play Columbus East. South Decatur stepped in to play the Olympians when Brownstown Central had to cancel its game at East because of quarantine issues.
The Cougars are hoping these games against larger schools prepare them for their 2A sectional at Milan next month.
“What we talked about in the locker room is, they’re better,” Wildey said. “They’re just flat-out better than us, so what did they do to keep the pressure on us. When we made a mistake, they took advantage of it almost every time. Now, how do we use that same kind of pressure against the day-to-day competition we play? Hopefully, by us being on the raw end of that deal, that’s going to make us better when we play in the sectional.”
