ST. LEON — Columbus North built itself a comfortable lead in the second half of a Saturday afternoon boys basketball game against East Central.
Even though the Trojans made an attempt to come back in the fourth quarter, the Bull Dogs slammed the door shut for a 51-41 victory.
“It was a hard-fought victory,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “Guarding (Luke) Collinsworth was difficult tonight, I know he had 20 points, but we did some good things.”
The Bull Dogs (11-4) went to a zone defense in trying to limit touches for the 6-foot-6, 270-pound Collinsworth, who has committed to play football at the University of Cincinnati. The defense worked for much of the first half, limiting him to eight first-half points. Sam King was the main guy in the zone defense that kept his eye on Collinsworth.
“Sam King did a tremendous job moving his feet and being in position and making (Collinsworth) work for his points,” Ferguson said. “The others guys were in the right spots on the help where we were bringing a double or digging. Diing Diing also came in and gave us some valuable minutes against Collinsworth. It takes a village to stop that kid, and he’s really hard to handle inside, and when he gets in his spot, you can’t move him. Your strategy changes a bit because of how much a factor he is on the low block. I thought our kids executed the game plan pretty well.”
Blake Barker got going by hitting a couple 3-pointers in the first quarter to help give North an 8-2 lead. East Central (10-7) scored the final two buckets to cut it to 8-6 after the first quarter.
After Collinsworth converted 1 of 2 from the free-throw line, the Bull Dogs turned up the intensity and went on a 9-0 run to increase the lead to 17-7. The Trojans cut it to 17-12 with less than a minute remaining in the first half, but then North held for the final shot. Cooper Horn converted the bank shot from about 15 feet to put the Bull Dogs ahead 19-12 at the break.
North put away the game in the third quarter, going on 13-2 run to extend the lead to 34-16. East Central used a 14-2 run to cut it to 36-30 with less than six minutes to go, but the Bull Dogs scored six straight points to end the threat.
“We had a spurt in the second half where we let them get to six (points), but then we closed it out,” Ferguson said. “I was pleased with the effort. I think there’s a lot to build on here.”
Horn led the Bull Dogs with 14 points, and Barker added 13. Collinsworth finished with a game-high 20 points for the Trojans.
