Columbus North’s Cooper Horn, right, shoots over Perry Meridian’s Seth Bradbury during a basketball game at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.
The Republic file photo
Columbus East and Columbus North both went on long winning streaks late in the boys basketball season, but those streaks don’t match the one that Bloomington North is on right now.
As a result, the Cougars are the favorite entering this week’s Class 4A Martinsville Sectional. They’ve won 12 in a row going into Tuesday’s 6 p.m. first-round matchup against East.
Bloomington North (19-3) beat the Olympians (7-14) 69-46 on Jan. 29. East won five in a row in an eight-day stretch earlier this month before dropping Wednesday’s regular-season finale at Floyd Central.
“I think you have to embrace that opportunity to go compete,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “You can’t beat No. 1 unless you play them. Nobody’s going to win in the tournament without facing good teams, so hopefully, we’re up for the challenge.”
The Olympians are led by senior Will Rieckers and juniors Ben Sylva and Julius Dailey. The Cougars are led by senior Nick Klaiber (18.7 ppg, 4.5 apg), junior JaQualon Roberts (14.1 ppg, 8.1 rpg) and senior Marco Fitch (11.2 ppg).
The winner of the East-Bloomington North game will face Columbus North (16-7) in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday. The Bull Dogs had won nine in a row before falling 53-40 at Bloomington North on Feb. 18.
Columbus North dropped its next game at Franklin before bouncing back with a win against Center Grove in Thursday’s regular-season finale.
“We’ve been sick lately,” Columbus North coach Paul Ferguson said. “We’ve been struggling with a lot of sickness on our team, and we didn’t get much of a preparation week last time we played Bloomington North. We’ve had some sicknesses kind of heal up the last few days, and we feel like we’re healthy again, and thankfully, we can get some time off and some time to practice and prepare and get our bodies healthy. We’re going to be ready to play a great game Friday night, whoever it is.”
Senior Sam King leads the Bull Dogs with 16.2 points and 6.4 rebounds a game. Junior Cooper Horn adds 14.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 steals.
King and last year’s leading scorer, Blake Barker, who now is playing at Army, played with sprained ankles last year when Columbus North lost to Bloomington North in the first round of the sectional. That was the Bull Dogs’ first game in three weeks following a two-week COVID quarantine and a week of practice.
“We were a mess physically at that point last year, and we’re just thankful we have a chance to get healthy,” Ferguson said.
Meanwhile, Hauser (9-13) will take on Morristown (3-17) in the opening round of the Class A Southwestern (Shelby) Sectional at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Jets routed the Yellow Jackets 61-36 back on Dec. 4.
“I think early in the year, that was one of our better efforts,” Hauser coach Brent Keck said. “We shot the ball and had great energy. We’ve shown at times we can play at a really high level, and we want to be able to sustain it for a full 32 minutes.”
The Jets are led by the senior trio of Bryce Bates, Eli Miller and Koby Johnson. Morristown is led by junior Nolan Laster (15.1 ppg) and senior Nick Stidham (12.3 ppg).
“They have two really good players in Stidham and Laster, and you have to come out of the gate ready to play,” Keck said. “We’ve tried to talk about some items in practice, and you just have to be ready to play this time of year.”
