Saige Stahl
The second quarter of Saturday’s girls basketball game between Class 4A No. 9 Columbus East and Mooresville was arguably one of the sloppiest quarters that the Olympians have played so far this season.
Turnovers and missed shots led to East putting up a zero in the scoring column. Late in the first half during a timeout, Olympians coach Danny Brown was understandably frustrated with his team’s effort.
When East came out of the locker room for the second half, they received his message loud and clear.
Down 32-9 at halftime, the Olympians turned up the energy and intensity to outscore the Pioneers 52-20 in the second half and complete a 61-52 come-from-behind victory.
“The game is in our hands, and (Brown) let us know that. We were the only ones that could determine the second half,” said East junior Saige Stahl, who finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight steals. “He told us that we needed to go out there and play our game. We weren’t playing like us in the first half, so we went out there and we played our game.”
In the first quarter, the Olympians (7-1) trailed 14-7 until a Stahl basket at the buzzer cut it to 14-9. It was all Mooresville (2-5) in the second quarter, taking advantage of the miscues East made. The Pioneers’ defense gave up zero points, and it gave them the 32-9 lead at the half.
Mooresville’s record isn’t the prettiest when you look at it on the surface, but like the Olympians, the Pioneers also played a lot of the top teams in the state with losses to 4A No. 3 Bedford North Lawrence and 4A co-No. 10 Lawrence North and last year’s 4A state runner-up, Brownsburg.
“We weren’t taking care of the basketball in the first half. We weren’t running our offense. Our defense was lackadaisical,” Brown said. “They got the message from me that we can’t do this against anybody, and Mooresville is a really good team. They play a great schedule. Mark Hurt, their coach, is one of the winningest coaches in Indiana history. This is not a team that you take lightly. To come back in the second half like we did, putting in 52 points in the second half, to be down 23 and win by nine, it says a lot about what we are capable of.”
East came out aggressive to start the second half and put the pressure on Mooresville. It caused the Pioneers to turn the ball over. The Olympians started the third quarter on a 16-2 run to cut it to 34-25. After Mooresville increased the lead back up to 39-25, East finished the quarter on a 8-2 to make it 41-33 heading into the fourth.
The Olympians took their first lead of the game at 47-44 following a three-point play from Koryn Greiwe with 4:26 remaining during an 18-3 run that eventually made it 51-44. East was able to close out the game at the foul line.
“Personally, I feel in the first half that we weren’t in the right mindset. No one was really ready, but then the second half, we turned it on,” East junior Leah Bachmann said.
The win gives the Olympians their best start since the 2017-18 season when they started out 7-0 and eventually won the sectional title that year.
Four players scored in double figures for East. Following Stahl’s 19 points, Greiwe finished with 14, Bachmann had 11 and Albany Speer added 10. The Olympians came up big from the line, shooting 33 of 41 from the charity stripe.
“I thought that Saige really picked it up in the second half. Everybody picked it up, and that was the key,” Brown said. “That was a big win to beat a team like that by nine after being down 23 was just an incredible effort in the second half. It’s as good as I’ve ever seen as a coach.”
