ST. LEON — Columbus North gained the momentum in the third quarter and looked like it was on its way to claiming its first sectional title since 2017.
East Central made the wait longer.
The host and Class 4A No. 9 Trojans finished the game outscoring the Bull Dogs 21-6 at the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter to claim their second straight sectional title with a 38-29 win in Saturday night’s East Central Sectional girls basketball championship and ending North’s season.
It marked the final high school basketball game for Bull Dog seniors Alexa McKinley, Madison White, Kanon Matsuno and Emily Herndon.
“We’re going to miss them a lot. They’re wonderful people, first of all, and they’re good players,” North Pat McKee said. “They understood their roles and did their roles really well. I think Emily and Kanon, especially, they were in secondary roles in the past, but this year, they’re in the primary rotation, and I think both of them stepped up and did everything we asked them to do. Of course you can say the same thing about Madison and Alexa, they’ve been in key roles for multiple years. All four of them have done a really nice job this season and throughout their careers of trying to make our program the best it could be.”
The Bull Dogs (13-6) started the game hitting three 3-pointers, included back to back 3s from McKinley and Lauren Barker to put them ahead 9-4. East Central (19-4) came back to cut it to 9-8 until a basket from Kylah Lawson with less than 10 seconds left gave North an 11-8 lead after the first quarter.
Both teams struggled to get on the scoreboard in the second quarter until a 3-pointer from the Trojans’ Julia Tiemann tied the game at 11-11 with around 4 1/2 minutes to go in the first half. East Central led 15-11, and then Barker hit her third 3 of the first half to cut it to 15-14 at halftime.
After the Trojans got the initial basket to start the third quarter, Barker hit two 3-pointers, and a steal and layup by McKinley sparked a 9-0 run to give North a 23-17 lead with 2:52 left in the period. East Central’s Hope Fox scored four straight points to cut it to 23-21 heading into the final quarter.
Josie Trabel came up clutch for the Trojans in the fourth, hitting six free throws down the stretch to seal the win. East Central was 8 of 13 from the line, and North was 5 of 11 from the line.
“They hit free throws down the stretch, and honestly, if you look at (Trabel’s) stats for the season, they’re not awesome, but tonight she was awesome,” McKee said. “(Four) nights ago against Bloomington South, we go 18 of 19 from the line. Five of 11 just doesn’t cut it. We’ve got to shoot free throws better than that.”
Barker led the Bull Dogs with a game-high 18 points, McKinley added six, and Lawson had four.
Even with North losing four seniors, it will return three starters in Barker, Lawson and Emma Long.
“Hopefully, that is a terrific nucleus to go from there,” McKee said. “(Friday) night, we played 12 kids, and over the course of the season, we played 16 players at least some varsity through the season. Our JV went 12-2 and could have won the games they lost. It was a very competitive JV group, so hopefully, we’re going to see really good things from the core group and others stepping into bigger roles as time moves on.”
