Saige Stahl
On an afternoon in which retiring head coach Danny Brown and assistant coach Willie Humes were honored prior to the game, their Columbus East girls basketball team got a big-time performance from a player who will be moving on after this season, as well.
Indiana State recruit Saige Stahl scored a career-high 40 points and grabbed 14 rebounds Saturday to lead the Olympians to a 78-44 win against Madison.
The victory allowed East to bounce back from a loss to Jennings County two days earlier. The sectional draw is today, and the Olympians have a pair of games this week to finish the regular season.
“We’ve kind of played a busy schedule the last two weeks, so we’re all a little exhausted, and we’re all just preparing for sectional,” Stahl said. “Coming into this game, we wanted to win all our games leading up to sectional, so we knew that it was a big game. It’s definitely a good win and a confidence booster leading up to our next couple of games.”
Stahl scored 10 points in each of the first two quarters as East (8-12) built a 39-17 lead with 30 seconds left in the first half. The Cubs (9-9) scored the final two points in the first half and the first seven of the second half to cut it to 39-26.
The Olympians then answered with an 11-0 run to make it 50-26 and cruised from there.
Leah Bachmann finished with 11 points and nine rebounds for East. Allison Craig scored nine points, and Messiah Trapp added eight points.
Brown gave Humes, who was Madison’s head girls coach for three years inbetween stints under Brown at East, the lead coaching role for Saturday’s game. The Olympians forced 32 Cubs turnovers.
“Coach (Brown) after the Jennings County game asked me if I wanted to coach today,” Humes said. “He said, ‘Come on coach,’ so we switched places. I like playing up and down the floor, so that was good.”
Columbus East 78, Madison 44
Madison;6;13;15;10;—;44
Columbus East;16;23;13;26;—;78
Madison (9-9): Breck Ralston 1 0-0 2, Cam Mann 0 0-0 0, Casey Dyer o 0-0 0, Cameran Cahall 1 5-8 7, Cadence Traylor 2 0-0 5, Bailey Owens 0 0-0 0, Juliana Davis 11 0-0 22, Addison Roark 0 0-0 0, Alaina Kelley 2 0-0 6, Hannah Dart 0 0-0 0, Mylee McQueary 1 0-0 2.. Totals: 18 5-9 44.
Columbus East (8-12): Jenna Guse 1 0-0 2, Victoria Cuhadar 0 0-0 0, Allison Craig 3 0-0 9, Maeleigh Roberts 1 0-0 3, Heidi Murphy 1 0-0 2, Saige Stahl 15 8-9 40, Brielle Stevens 1 0-0 3, Leah Bachmann 5 1-2 11, Messiah Trapp 3 2-2 8. Totals: 30 11-13 78.
3-point goals: Madison 3 (Kelley 2, Traylor); Columbus East 7 (Craig 3, Stahl 2, Roberts, Stevens).
