Lauren Barker
Columbus North gave Carmel a little bit of trouble early on during Thursday night’s girls basketball contest.
Once the Greyhounds finally found a way to solve the early woes, there was no stopping them, and they went on a 26-2 scoring run during one stretch of the game on their way to handing the Bull Dogs a 60-26 loss.
Even though it wasn’t the result it wanted, North still has its season goals still intact.
“We reminded them (after the game) that all our goals that we have are still out in front of us,” North coach Brett White said. “We talked about that we’re not shooting the ball very well right now. That falls on us as coaches to get more shooting time at practice, but it falls on them to get some extra practice in outside of practice, as well. We talked about making sure we stayed focus on what our goals are and how we can get there because tonight didn’t take any of that away from us.”
The Bull Dogs (10-7) got off to a good start to lead 8-3 early in the first quarter. Carmel (11-6) couldn’t get much inside the paint offensively due to the North’s zone defense. The Greyhounds were able to counter the zone with perimeter shooting by knocking down two straight 3-point field goals to go ahead 9-8 and lead 11-10 after one.
North didn’t have an answer for Michigan commit Kate Clarke, who hit four 3-pointers in the first half en route to a game-high 19 points.
“We were very patient early on, and we moved the basketball and got easy shots,” White said. “Then we weren’t as patient. Their pressure sped us up a little bit. We took a little bit quicker shots, we got some turnovers, we didn’t get in the spots we were supposed to be in at certain times. That all added up. Plus, they’ve got a Big Ten Player (Clarke) that outplayed us. She took over in the first half. She had 15 points in the first half, and we didn’t do a good job of identifying her a couple times when we should have.”
Carmel went to a zone defense itself that limited the scoring chances for the Bull Dogs in the second quarter. An Andrea Justis basket with around 3:30 left in the quarter were the only points for North, which was outscored by the Greyhounds 15-2 to balloon the lead to 26-12 at the half.
Carmel sealed the victory by going on a 9-0 run to lead 35-12 and built the lead to 50-23 after three quarters.
For the Bull Dogs, Lauren Barker led with eight points. Justis had seven and Kylah Lawson added six.
For Carmel, following Clarke’s 19 points, Hannah Lach added 12.
