Olympians top Trinity for first win of season

Columbus East’s Zane Moravec takes a 3-pointer Friday at Trinity Lutheran.

Jeff Lubker | For The Republic

By Dylan Wallace

For The Republic

SEYMOUR — Columbus East picked up its first win of the season, and Trinity Lutheran suffered its first loss of the season on Friday night when the Cougars and Olympians squared off at Trinity.

It was a low scoring affair, but East was able to obtain a comfortable lead and win the game 44-22.

The Olympians got off to a good start, leading 13-5 after the first quarter. It was a struggle for the Cougars to get the ball in the basket throughout the first eight minutes, in large part due to turnovers and East’s ability to swarm the ball once it got inside the paint.

“You see how little we are. We’re like a bunch of gnats trying to get in there and make it tough on people,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “I thought our guys did a good job making it tough for them to get inside and get something clean.”

The Olympians (1-3) nailed five 3-pointers in the first half to take a 28-15 lead into the break. Ben Sylva and Julius Dailey each had two, and Zane Moravec had one.

“We believe all our kids can shoot wide open shots,” Chitty said. “I still don’t think we shot as well as we are capable of doing.”

Trinity (1-1) had some more success getting baskets in the second quarter when Jacob Sabotin found Sage Broughton off some nice high-low action.

Broughton and Jacob Conrad led the Cougars at the break with four points each. Mitchell Hackman, who had 34 points in Trinity’ season-opener, was held to zero field goals in the first half, but he made 3 of 6 free throws.

“We wanted it in the lane area,” Trinity coach Brad Dickey said. “If you spend all your time outside, the defense will key on your guards. We really wanted to touch the ball inside more often.”

The third quarter was a struggle for both teams offensively. East could add only six more points to its total, but the Cougars could amount only two points, and the Olympians went into the fourth quarter with a 37-17 advantage.

Broughton hit a 3 early in the fourth quarter to bring Trinity within 14, trying to create some momentum, but East’s Will Rieckers answered with a 3-pointer of his own to push it back up to 17.

“I thought defensively, we did a good job handling any run they would make,” Chitty said. “I was pleased with that. Rebounding, I thought we did a pretty decent job. We didn’t give them many second opportunities. Offensively, we still need to execute a bit better.”

The Olympians outrebounded the Cougars 22-17

Rieckers had 11 points for the Olympians, who were led by Sylva with 14. Broughton led the Cougars in scoring with nine points.

Dickey wasn’t pleased with his team’s defensive effort.

“We kind of went soft in a couple spots that really hurt us in the first half,” he said. “We played much harder in the second half, but then a little bit clumsy.”

The Cougars will be back in action in one week when they host Southwestern (Shelby) on Friday.

“We need a little bit of everything,” Dickey said. “Our offensive play can get better. We rebounded well in our first game but not tonight. We’ll look at film and try to figure out how to get better at that.”

As for the Olympians, they will host Southwestern (Hanover) later at 7:30 p.m. today

“We’re gonna have to play a lot better defense,” Chitty said. “They’ve got some size, too. They can shoot the ball pretty well, so we’re gonna have to be able to really get up in them, ‘D’ them up and we’re gonna have to knock some shots down.”