Columbus North’s Olivia Johnson, right, shoots a layup under pressure from East Central’s Anna Black during a basketball game in Memorial Gym at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Columbus North had plenty of open looks at the basket from 3-point range against East Central Thursday night.
Unfortunately for the Bull Dogs, they couldn’t get many of those shots to go down. They finished 3 for 23 from beyond the arc, and the Trojans broke open a close game in the second half to pull away for a 53-35 win.
“You eventually have to make shots,” North coach Brett White said. “We executed some things that we wanted to execute and got wide-open shots. We just didn’t make those shots. We have to be more confident shooters, and tonight, we missed a couple, and for whatever reason, we weren’t able to gain our confidence.”
The Bull Dogs (5-4) led 19-15 with three minutes left in the first half following a 3-pointer from Emma Long. But then East Central (8-4) scored the last seven points of the first half to begin a 19-5 run that put the Trojans in control.
North held Indiana Junior All-Star and Wofford commit Josie Trabel to six points in the first half, but Trabel got going in the second half and finished with game-highs of 21 points and eight rebounds to lead East Central.
“I thought we acutally defended really well in the first half,” White said. “I think maybe the missed shots kind of led to us losing some of our energy on the defensive end. The second half, I think we got a little bit frustrated because we weren’t making shots, and we let that carry over to the other end in the second half, and they were able to break us down a little bit.”
The Bull Dogs played without sophomore guard Hadassah Hurt, who is has been their first player off the bench and one of their top shooters, but was sick on Thursday. Olivia Johnson took Hurt’s place in that role and hit two of North’s three 3s on her way to a team-high eight points.
“Not having somebody that’s usually in your rotation makes a difference, but they also had somebody that wasn’t in their rotation, as well,” White said. “That’s part of having a team, is being able to have some depth, and we have some people that can come off the bench and do some things, so we have to rely on those people even more when we’re one person down.”
Long finished with seven points for the Bull Dogs. Kathryn Wilson grabbed six rebounds to lead North to a 31-24 advantage on the boards and spent most of the night guarding Trabel before fouling out in the closing minutes.
East Central 53, Columbus North 35
East Central;12;10;12;19;—;53
Columbus North;10;9;9;7;—;35
East Central (8-4): Caitlyn Dick 3 2-2 11, Laney Baker 2 3-4 7, Emily Klem 2 2-2 6, Josie Trabel 6 8-9 21, Anna Black 1 1-3 4, Karlie Davis 2 0-0 4. Totals: 16 16-20 53.
Columbus North (5-4): Kathryn Wilson 1 1-2 3, Lauren Barker 2 2-2 6, Olivia Johnson 2 2-2 8, Elise Preston 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Horn 1 0-1 2, Kayla Jones 0 3-4 3, Kaitlin White 0 0-0 0, Miley McClellan 3 0-0 6, Emma Long 3 0-1 7. Totals: 12 8-12 35.
3-point goals: East Central 5 (Dick 3, Trabel, Black); Columbus North 3 (Johnson 2, Long).
