Columbus East’s Will Rieckers shoots over Madison’s Quincy Reynolds on Friday in the Orange Pit at Columbus East High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
No one could have had a better night on Columbus East’s senior night than senior Will Rieckers.
Rieckers poured in a game-high 28 points to send him and fellow seniors J.T. Kuhlman and Anthony Lloyd on a happy note with a 60-40 victory in their home finale. The Olympoians used a 27-2 run at one point during the game to secure the win.
“I was hot (Thursday) night (at East Central), and kind of continued rolling it today,” Rieckers said. “I’ve always dreamed about my last game on the court and just leaving it all out there. I’ve seen all my buddies go through it. I dreamed of giving it my all out there and doing the best I can and score as many as I can.”
The wins give the Olympians a five-game winning streak to improve to 7-13 on the season, and they couldn’t have picked a better time with sectional play coming up in a couple weeks. They’ve also won more games than the previous two years combined after only winning one game last year and four games two years ago. They started this season 1-10.
“It’s huge for us going into sectional,” Rieckers said. “All the people doubting us getting this amount of wins this season, it just fuels the fire, and that’s one of the huge things for our energy at the end of the year, which is why we’ve been playing good and winning a lot of games.”
Ben Sylva added 15 points for East, which closes the regular season Wednesday at Floyd Central.
Olympians coach Brent Chitty appreciated his three seniors — Rieckers, Kuhlman and Lloyd — and the team for a huge turnaround over the past several games.
“We weren’t a very good basketball team in the beginning. You could have folded your tent, and these kids have not done that,” Chitty said. “Their perseverance is off the charts. Their energy level is good as I’ve ever seen it. They’re confident and they’re competing. I’m just really proud of them.”
