Columbus East's Koryn Greiwe, right, dribbles past Floyd Central's Samara Miller during a basketball game at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. Mike Wolanin | The Republic
It wasn’t the best shooting day for Columbus East in its season opener against Hoosier Hills Conference opponent Floyd Central Saturday afternoon.
But even though it wasn’t their best shooting day from the field, the Olympians definitely made up for it at the charity stripe.
East shot 24 of 30 from the line as a team including going 7 of 8 down the stretch in the fourth quarter to come away with a 57-48 girls basketball victory.
“Anytime you can shoot 80% on 30 free throw attempts, it’s important, it’s big,” East coach Danny Brown said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well. We couldn’t throw it into the ocean in the first half, and they were basically uncontested shots. Maybe it’s expected being the first game. You’ve got to give Floyd Central a lot of credit… Every team in our conference is tough.”
The Olympians were out of sync to start the game, and it led the Highlanders to jump out in front 10-3. After a timeout from East, the Olympians turned up the intensity on offense and defense. They forced turnovers and kept Floyd Central off the board for the remainder of the quarter. They also made the most of their opportunities at the foul line to help them to a 15-10 lead after one.
The Highlanders didn’t go away easy. Kendall Brown nailed a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 19-17. East’s Koryn Greiwe then drained a 3 from the right corner close to the midway mark of the second quarter to make it 22-17. The Olympians then used their advantage from the perimeter and the foul line to build a 33-25 advantage at the half.
Free throws for East in the first half proved to be a huge difference in the score. As a team, the Olympians shot 16 of 18 in the first half. Floyd Central was only 8 of 14 from the line in the first half.
“Getting to the free-throw line is part of the game you can control,” Greiwe said. “You don’t have any defenders on you. You can be so focused on shooting. You maybe will have people in the audience screaming, but you have control of it more than any other aspect of the game.”
The Highlanders went on the attack in the paint to start off the third quarter, and the deficit got within 39-37. After a few East turnovers and a couple of Floyd Central 3s, the Olympians held only a 44-43 lead heading into the fourth.
The Highlanders took their first lead of the game since the first quarter on a basket from Samara Miller to go ahead 47-46 with 6:58 left in the game. With the game tied at 48-48, East finished the game on a 9-0 run.
A big key down the stretch was Floyd Central knowing Greiwe’s nearly 90-percent career shooting at the line, basically trying to force her to pass the ball instead of fouling. Brown said his team was able to chew up a lot of clock during that time.
“They put a lot of pressure on us and ended up getting the lead, but we bounced back,” Brown said. “We decided to spread out and keep it in Koryn’s hands. They didn’t want to foul her, and about 45 seconds went off the clock just because they didn’t want to foul her. When they ended up having to, she was able to knock them down.”
Greiwe finished with 19 points, including going 11 of 12 from the line. Saige Stahl had 16 points and was 8 of 11 from the line. Harley Gant and Albany Speer each added seven points.
“Everybody contributed today. There was a stretch when Jenna Guse and Messiah Trapp came in (the third quarter) and gave us a lot of energy. They gave us some good minutes,” Brown said. “We’ll learn from today. We’ll go back to work on Monday and be ready for the next one, which is Bloomington South (on Thursday at home).”
