NORTH VERNON — Jennings County was on the attack early and often in Friday night’s Hoosier Hills Conference boys basketball game with Columbus East.
The Panthers went on a huge run in the first half and made the Olympians chances at a second half comeback slim to none to secure an 86-60 victory to remain in sole possession of first place the HHC standings.
“We knew we had a lot of stake here tonight. We’ve got a chance to win the conference and Columbus East was another step in that direction,” Jennings coach Josh Land said. “I thought we did a good job following the game plan. Columbus East really sagged in and tried to take (Jacob) Vogel away, and we made good decisions with the basketball, found the open guy on the perimeter and made it when we were open. Hitting 17 3s in a game is pretty outstanding.”
The Panthers (10-6, 4-1) worked their way inside earely with Vogel, and it helped them jump out to a 9-5 lead. After the Olympians (1-14, 0-5) cut it to 9-8 following a Jacob Pierce 3-pointer with around 3:50 left in the first quarter, Jennings went on an 11-2 run to close out the quarter and lead 20-10.
The Panthers then outscored East 21-8 to start the second quarter to lead 41-18 until three-point plays from Tyler Boyer and Will Rieckers cut the deficit to 41-24 at halftime. Carson McNulty hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter, and Jennings possessed a 65-44 lead after the heading to the fourth.
Both teams went to their benches in the fourth quarter to close out the game.
“It was a big win,” McNulty said. “We had to beat them if we wanted to win the conference. We’ve got a big game at Jeff (today) and a big game at Madison Tuesday.”
Jennings can win the HHC title outright with wins in both games and can win at least a share of the title with a victory in on of the two.
McNulty finished with a game-high 23 points to lead the Panthers. Vogel finished with 12 points, and Darius Thomas had and Cole Sigler each added 11.
“Carson’s a really great shooter. He works at it, and it goes in for a reason,” Land said. “I thought Carson played with a ton of confidence. Tonight coming off the bench, he’s not been discouraged with that. He comes in and plays as hard as he can. Tonight, I thought he was rewarded for that.”
Boyer finished with a team-high 16 points, while Pierce had 15 and Rieckers added 10 for the Olympians.
