BLOOMINGTON — Columbus East really, really slowed down the pace of the game early on during Friday night’s Bloomington South Sectional boys basketball semifinal game against Bloomington North.
Eventually, the Cougars found a way to create cushion.
A 15-4 run in the first half broke the game open, and the Olympians were handed a season-ending 59-41 loss.
“When our kids prepared, they had to buy into it. Bloomington North is a very talented team,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “We talked about us. Defensively, we had trouble guarding and giving up 75 points a game, and then offensively, we haven’t shot the ball as well as we wanted. So I said that if you want to improve your shooting, move closer to the basket. That’s what we tried to do. If you want to keep the score down a little bit and not have to play so much defense, keep the ball. That’s what we tried to do.”
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The Olympians (1-18) slowed down the pace of the game to make sure they made every possession count. It worked early on when Tyler Boyer got them going with the opening bucket with 7:10 left in the first quarter. The next basket didn’t come until about four minutes later when Nick Klaiber tied the game at 2-2 with 3:10 left in the opening period. Jacob Pierce gave East the lead back, but a free throw and a basket right before the first quarter buzzer gave Bloomington North (13-4) a 5-4 lead.
The Cougars then started to press a little bit in the half court and full court to counter the slow pace of the Olympians, and it made them come away empty on some possessions. Bloomington North took advantage to outscore East 12-4 in the second quarter to pull ahead 17-8 at the break.
The Cougars went ahead 29-13 midway through the third quarter. East picked up the pace of the game and went on a 12-5 run to cut the lead to 34-25. Bloomington North added a basket to make it 36-25 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Olympians cut it down to 44-34 at one point in the fourth quarter. The Cougars sealed the game with a 15-3 run and to go ahead 59-37. Both teams emptied its benches to finish the game.
“The record is the record, but these guys never quit throughout the year, and they prepared this week to win a sectional. I’m pretty pleased with that,” Chitty said. “It was a tough year, but we never quit, we kept battling. It just makes you a stronger person.”
The Olympians had three players end up in double figures. Pierce finished with a team-high 14 points, while Boyer and Daniel Murphy added 10 apiece.
Isaac Vencel finished with a game-high 15 points to lead the Cougars. Klaiber and JaQualan Roberts each added 14.
East will lose a lot of its core pieces in seniors Boyer, Pierce, Murphy, Ben Major, Crase Bergman and Casey Bartholomew.
“They’re a very unique group of guys, borderline goofy at times, but they are competitive,” Chitty said. “They’re not quitters. They won’t quit. They won’t quit anything in life. They’ll be successful in everything else they do.”
