Columbus East’s Koryn Greiwe shoots a layup against Jeffersonville Saturday in the Orange Pit at Columbus East High School. Tommy Walker (For The Republic)
While the ultimate battle for the Hoosier Hills Conference girls basketball title likely will come Jan. 11 at Bedford North Lawrence, Columbus East knows that to defend its HHC crown, it must win its other conference games.
One of those tests came Saturday afternoon against a formidable Jeffersonville squad. The Class 4A No. 8 Olympians had little trouble in turning back the Red Devils 84-54 for their eighth win in a row.
“We put a big emphasis on conference games, especially at home,” East coach Danny Brown said. “You have to take care of business, and I thought we got off to a good start and that’s very important with the competition our conference has. It’s deep, it’s rated one of the better conferences in the state every year and you have to be ready for everybody.”
The Olympians (10-1, 2-0) shot 53 percent from 3-point range (10 of 19) and overall from the field (30 of 57).
“We were hitting shots, which was a focus in practice last week, and we just went out there and played our game,” junior forward Saige Stahl said. “We started off really strong this game, and that was our main focus because it’s a conference game, it’s a big game and it’s another step to the conference title just like last year.”
Leading 5-4 midway through the first quarter, East went on a 16-2 run to take control. The Olympians led 19-6 after one quarter and built the lead to 41-20 at halftime.
East was one point away from triggering a running clock when it led 64-30 with 2:57 left in the third quarter before Brown emptied his bench.
Koryn Greiwe led the Olympians with 22 points and seven steals. Stahl added 15 points and 12 rebounds, Leah Bachmann had 14 points and eight rebounds and Albany Speer contributed 13 points and four assists.
“I thought we came out and moved the ball really well and got everybody involved,” Brown said. “Koryn had a nice game, Saige had another nice game, Albany really played well and shot the lights out and Leah was real aggressive on the offensive end. We got experience for our younger kids and our bench, and that was important.”
East now turns its attention to Tuesday’s game at Ben Davis before a Thursday visit to crosstown rival Columbus North.
“I think we started off really fast, and we were sharing the ball,” Greiwe said. “We were able to break their press. We need to focus on hitting more free throws and just continuing to share the ball. Overall, it was just a great team win, and we’re really looking forward to the next game at Ben Davis and then we’ll look forward from there.”
