Columbus North’s Drew Schiefer shoots between Silver Creek’s Nate Davidson (33) (obscured) and Jayce Just (40) Friday in Memorial Gymnasium at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
.It is not a huge surprise that there would be growing pains with the Columbus North boys basketball team this season.
With new faces getting significant experience on varsity for the first time this year, it’s going to take a bit of patience for the Bull Dogs to get it all figured out. They fell to 0-3 for the first time since 2005 with a 60-44 loss to visiting Silver Creek Friday night.
North coach Paul Ferguson said the mark of a good team is consistency. While the Bull Dogs had some shining moments Friday night, they weren’t able to put all the pieces together.
“We played some really good basketball tonight. We’re not a consistent basketball team yet, and that’s what hurt us,” Ferguson said. “We did some things really well, but then we’d have some tough turnovers at the end of the (first) half. We’re not consistent enough.”
The Bull Dogs led for much of the first half until the Dragons (3-0) finished the second quarter on a 5-0 run to tie it at 21-21 at the half.
“I feel like offensively in the first half was probably the best offense we played all year,” North sophomore Caleb Ferguson said. “We got to our initial actions. We got Drew (Schiefer) some touches in the paint, and our offense ran really well.”
In the middle of the third quarter, Silver Creek went on a 13-2 run to break open a 40-29. The Bull Dogs came back with a couple of 3-point baskets to cut the deficit to 40-37 heading into the fourth.
North got it to within five early in the fourth quarter, but three 3-point buckets from the Dragons sealed the game.
Caleb Ferguson led the Bull Dogs with 16 points. Max Coomes added three 3-pointers for nine points, and Schiefer finished with eight.
Kasen Drager led Silver Creek with five 3-pointers to lead the charge with a game-high 24 points.
North will have to put this loss behind them when it travels to Martinsville tonight.
“We’ll have our first road game (today) and going into a place 0-3, which is an unusually position for our program to be in. We’ve got to learn to be consistent. We did some things really well but some hard games to win,” Paul Ferguson said. “We’re going to have to hang tough. It’s really going to test their mental toughness, and they know we’re playing for February, and it’s going to take time. When you’re in the moment of losing games, it’s hard. It’s hard to stay positive, it’s hard to keep growing. I’ve got a very competitive group, and they’ll continue to get better. They’ll be there. It’s just going to take time.”
Silver Creek 60, Columbus North 44
Silver Creek;10;11;19;20;—;60
Columbus North;9;12;16;7;—;44
Columbus North (0-3): Mason Acton 0 0-0 0, Caleb Ferguson 7 0-0 16, Nate Enneking 1 0-0 2, Drew Schiefer 4 0-0 8, Garrett Long 2 0-0 4, Nolan Pickup 2 1-2 5, Max Coomes 3 0-0 9, Ben Ferguson 0 0-0 0, Judah Lewis 0 0-0 0, Austin Perry 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 1-2 44.
3-point goals: Columbus North 5 (Coomes 3, C. Ferguson 2).
