Columbus East’s Alex Duncan draws a foul from East Central’s Joel Richter during Friday’s East Central Sectional semifinal game.
Rob Baker | For The Republic
ST. LEON — Now that March has officially arrived, the intensity has gone up even if the final scores haven’t.
Indiana’s long-standing postseason blueprint was on full display Friday night at East Central, as the host Trojans defeated Columbus East 41-37.
The semifinal win puts East Central (12-13) in tonight’s championship game against Franklin (17-4).
Similar to the game played between the two teams in January, a 43-41 East Central win, this one sorely lacked style points.
“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” Olympians coach Perry Nash said. “We had a slow start, but our guys just battled. We battled back, took the lead, and I don’t think things really went our way tonight. But that’s OK. That happens.”
Nash, whose team finished the season 7-17, features a number of talented underclassmen. He wanted to talk about seniors Jackson Fischvogt, Elum VanEst and Kadin Lobdell and the groundwork they’ve poured over the course of the season.
“Our three seniors have now set what our program is all about. Jack, he shoots hundreds of thousands of shots. Before practice, after practice. He comes in at 6 a.m. every morning and is showing these younger guys what it’s about. Then, we have two other seniors who are, literally, the emotional backbone of our team.”
East Central senior center Eli Ertel led all scorers with 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while hard-nosed junior guard Carson Pieczonka added 12 points. No Olympians’ players cracked double-digits, though Fischvogt was close with nine.
Sophomore guard Keaton Lawson added seven points and tied Ertel for game rebounding honors with eight.
Both teams shot poorly – contested and otherwise.
The Trojans finished 13 of 41 from the floor (.317) and the free throw line (11 of 22). Columbus East went 14 of 35 (.400) and 5 of 12.
The rugby scrum of a first half concluded with Columbus East leading 18-15, despite turning the basketball over seven times.
East Central had the early momentum, using consecutive triples from Ertel and a hoop in transition by guard Dylan Maxwell to claim a quick 8-2 lead.
An Olympians’ timeout at 4:34 of the first preceded Lawson’s old-fashioned three-point sequence, a Danny Coriden bucket in close and a layup from Anthony Cowan off a nifty feed from Lawson at the buzzer.
Thirty seconds into the second stanza, Columbus East took the lead on Lawson’s spin to the tin, followed by a Coriden 3-pointer from the right baseline for a 15-11 advantage. A reverse layup from Fischvogt at 10.4 seconds before intermission concluded the first-half scoring.
Columbus East clung to a 24-23 advantage through three quarters and was still up early in the fourth period when an Ertel basket down low at 4:29 put the Trojans ahead for good. East Central later kept the Olympians at arm’s length by converting 6 of 8 free throws in the final 57.1 seconds.
“Being young and being sophomore-heavy doesn’t matter if you don’t know what leadership is,” Nash said. “Our seniors showed us what it is, and what it’s about.”
