Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Columbus East went into Thursday night’s crosstown battle at Columbus North intent on setting the tone with a smothering defensive performance.
The Class 4A co-No. 9 Olympians certainly did that, and that fed their offense. By the end of four quarters, East had a 74-29 win, its first victory against the Bull Dogs at North since the turn of the century and its first regular-season win over the Bull Dogs since the 2010-11 season.
“Pressure is what we have focused on,” East junior Saige Stahl said. “Our heads were pressure, pressure, pressure all throughout the game, and I think our steals and our blocks helped us turn the game around, and that gave us an opportunity on the offfensive side. We worked the ball really well. We played a great as a team because we all wanted it so bad.”
Stahl led the Olympians (11-2) with 26 points. Her personal 9-0 run late in the second quarter extended a 22-12 lead to 31-12.
“Our press really got two them and affected them early,” East coach Danny Brown said. “When they attacked the basket, we got some big blocks from Harley Gant and Saige and Leah (Bachmann) inside, and it just kind of threw them off a little bit and our offense was just clicking. Our defense, our press created a lot of offense for us this evening, and we capitalized on those big-time tonight. We always talk about, if we get a steal, we want to attack the basket or get an easy 3-point shot, and I thought we did that tonight.”
Koryn Greiwe added 14 points and four assists for East. Bachmann had 12 points, and 6-foot-3 center Gant led the Olympians with eight rebounds and nine blocked shots.
Bachmann said the key was to start off fast, stay focused and play their game.
“The biggest part of our game is our defense, and our offense just comes from our defense,” Bachmann said. “So the ability to just keep them from scoring 3s on the outside, and Harley Gant came up big blocking, Saige Stahl, Leah, everyone, we were all just playing as a team, and it was great. We worked on the outside, and it just shut them down. Harley did great tonight.”
East forced 24 Bull Dog turnovers while committing only 11 itself.
“We weren’t able to make shots early, and we pressed a little bit when we didn’t make shots, so that sped us up, and when we sped up, we started turning the ball over, and live-ball turnovers turned into layups for them and we just couldn’t get it reeled back in,” North coach Brett White said. “It’s a long season. This was one game. Right now, we’re disappointed. Right now, we’re hurting, but we have a game on Tuesday, so we have to play the next play, and the next play is getting ready for Jennings (County), and we’ll put a better product on the floor next time.”
Lauren Barker led North (7-4) with seven points. Kylah Lawson added six points and 11 rebounds.
The Olympians are anxious to start a new streak after their eight-game winning streak was snapped Tuesday at Ben Davis.
“I think we played really well as a team,” Bachmann said. “Sometimes, we come out and we can’t share the ball, and tonight, we just shared it really well and everyone had a really good game. I think our loss against Ben Davis on Tuesday really motivated us to get this, and obviously, it’s North, so we all wanted it.”
Thursday marked the first game between East and North in 22 months. The teams did not meet last year because the Bull Dogs were in quarantine, and the game did not get rescheduled.
“We’ve been waiting for this game for two years,” Brown said. “We didn’t get a chance to play last year because of quarantine situation, and our kids have kind of circled this one on the calendar and were waiting to get over here and play this game and show what we’re capable of doing. I’m glad that Columbus got to come out to see some type of a normal game and see just how talented we are. We hope to keep it going, and if we play like this, we’re capable of beating anybody.”
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Columbus East 74, Columbus North 29
Columbus East;17;17;24;16;—;74
Columbus North;6;6;7;10;—;29
Columbus East (11-2): Koryn Greiwe 5 3-5 14, Albany Speer 3 0-0 8, Jenna Guse 1 2-2 4, Allison Craig 0 0-0 0, Maeleigh Roberts 1 0-0 3, Messiah Trapp 0 0-0 0, Saige Stahl 11 4-5 26, Leah Bachmann 6 0-0 12, Kaitlyn Carothers 1 0-0 2, Harley Gant 2 1-2 5. Totals: 30 10-14 74.
Columbus North (7-4): Greta Brown 0 0-0 0, Lauren Barker 2 2-2 7, Olivia Johnson 0 0-0 0, Elise Preston 0 0-0 0, Kylah Lawson 3 0-0 6, Andrea Justis 2 1-2 5, Lucy Norman 0 0-0 0, Maggie Russell 0 0-0 0, Kayla Jones 0 2-2 2, Reagan Ables 0 0-0 0, Kathryn Wilson 1 0-0 2, Rylie Boezeman 1 0-0 2, Hadassah Hurt 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 5-6 29.
3-point goals: Columbus East 4 (Speer 2, Greiwe, Roberts); Columbus North 2 (Barker, Preston).
