Columbus East’s Koryn Greiwe (2) battles New Albany’s Kaylee DeMuth (22) for the ball as East’s Harley Gant (34) and Maeleigh Roberts (14) and New Albany’s Sophia Corley (21) and Journey Howard (23) look on in the Orange Pit at Columbus East High School. Tommy Walker (For The Republic)
Prior to its game against New Albany on Saturday afternoon, Columbus East coach Danny Brown invited a special guest to deliver the pregame pep talk.
Maria Stack, the 1980 Miss Basketball from East, who recently had her career scoring record broken by senior Koryn Greiwe, addressed the Olympians. They then went out and scored 51 points in the first half and rolled to an 82-42 Hoosier Hills Conference victory.
“To have the former Miss Basketball game come in and gave us a real inspirational speech before the game, I’m so glad she was able to come here, and we could honor her for all of her accomplishments, and she wanted to be here and honor Koryn at the same time,” Brown said.
Greiwe hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter on her way to a team-high 21 points. She said Stack’s message was about how the entire team plays in a role in records being set.
“It’s really awesome to listen to someone that you’ve always known and looked up to,” Greiwe said. “She just talked about that everyone is included in every record that is hit. We’re all a family. My teammates are so special to me, and I wouldn’t be here without them and also my coaches and my family.”
Class 4A co-No. 14 East (15-3, 5-0) jumped out to a 25-10 lead after one quarter and led 51-20 at halftime.
The game went to a running clock when the lead reached 35 midway through the third quarter.
“We executed our game plan and moved the ball well and got everybody involved,” Brown said. “We’re just clicking right now, and it’s that time of year when we have to be playing our best. For the most part, we are.”
Saige Stahl recorded 14 points and nine rebounds for the Olympians. Jenna Guse added a career-high 12 points off the bench, and Harley Gant had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“It was great,” Gant said. “I think we all worked as a team really well today. We passed it when we needed to pass it, and we shot it when we were open. Just us all working together and letting everyone had their own opportunities was great.”
The win clinches at least a share of the HHC title for the Olympians. They can finish undefeated in the conference for the second year in a row with a win Thursday at Jennings County.
“It means everything for us, but we’re not satisfied yet,” Gant said. “We want to go out there and beat Jennings County and get it outright to ourselves back-to-back.”
“We were super excited,” Greiwe added. “The job is not done yet. We’re getting closer to actually clinching it outright. We’re keeping our eye on the prize.”
