First Things First: Bull Dogs rout Artesians, give White first win as head coach

Columbus North's Kylah Lawson closely guards Martinsville's Mackenzie Martin during a game in Memorial Gymnasium at Columbus North High School.

Tommy Walker/For The Republic

After lopsided losses against top-10 teams in its first two games, the Columbus North girls needed a breakthrough in the worst way Friday night.

The Bull Dogs got the fast start they needed, jumping out to a 13-2 lead after one quarter, and went on to post a 66-35 win against Martinsville.

“We passed the ball really well, and we shared it really well,” said senior Kylah Lawson, who posted game-highs of 24 points and 10 rebounds. “We had trouble with our first two games, and I think this game brought us a lot of confidence.”

The victory is the first as a head coach for first-year North mentor Brett White.

“It’s always fun to win,” White said. “But I’m just happy to see the improvement the girls had from the two games we played last week. A lot of the things we worked on this week, we carried over to the game. So I’m just proud of their effort.”

One of those carryovers from practice came on the defensive end. The Bull Dogs (1-2) forced 21 turnovers from the Artesians (1-2).

“That’s always the goal,” White said. “We’re always trying to get some easy baskets. We talk about the team with the most easy baskets is going to be the team that’s going to be successful, so anytime we can turn people over, that’s going to help us out a lot.”

North raced to a 7-0 lead less than 2 minutes in on seven quick points from Lauren Barker. Barker, who was shut out against Class 4A No. 5 Franklin six days earlier, hit four of her first five shots from the field and scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half.

“I definitely was working on my shooting in practice,” Barker said. “Franklin definitely knew I was a shooter, so they’re going to take away my strength. But some were able to fall tonight. I think it’s going to give us some momentum and confidence going into our next games. It’s always good to get a win after some losses.”

“With Lauren, you knew it was going to happen sometime,” White added. “She had a little mini-slump there, but you knew that she was going to get going at some point in time. I was really happy with Lauren’s defense tonight, and that’s really I think what sparked her offense. She guarded (Delaney) Wolfe really well tonight, and that kind of got her going on the offensive end.”

Lawson scored 14 points in the second quarter, and the Bull Dogs led 32-11 at halftime. Lawson then scored her final eight points of the night in the third period, sparking North to a 48-21 advantage.

Andrea Justis, who plays alongside Lawson in the post, added career-highs of 11 points and eight rebounds for the Bull Dogs.

“We knew they were going to play zone, and we worked on a lot of things with those two, and they carried that over tonight,” White said. “Both of them were successful scoring, but they also gave us good defensive minutes. Our two seniors stepped up for us tonight.”

“We were kind of in a slump for a little bit, but it just feels good to get back out there and get this win under our belt,” Justis added. “Because they’re a sectional opponent, too, it feels good to put that message out there.”