Columbus North graduate Emma Beaver (20), Jaylee Hubble (12) and their IU Columbus teammates celebrate their first on-court win of the season Monday at Nexus Park.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
Going into Monday evening’s matchup with Alice Lloyd, IU Columbus’ lone women’s basketball win this season had come by forfeit.
The Crimson Pride turned the tide on those fortunes, putting together a 96-85 victory at Nexus Park for their first on-court victory.
“It’s amazing, actually,” said Abby Fleetwood, a junior from Indian Creek. “We needed this win so bad after what we’ve been going through, so it’s just a really big pick-me-up. We know what we have to do to win now, so we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and better ourselves from that.”
Abby Fleetwood
Fleetwood led IUC (2-9) with 27 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and seven steals. Amaya Collins, a sophomore from Frankton, added 26 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Amaya Collins
“We were big on communication tonight and talking to each other more encouraging each other, and I think that helped a lot, just picking each other up,” Collins said.
The Crimson Pride did it with men’s coach James Adams and assistant Jared Brown coaching the women’s team Monday while women’s coach Reena Haliburton took a personal leave.
Adams found out Sunday that he would be coaching the women’s team Monday and guided them in a practice Monday morning. Then, he led them to their highest scoring total of the season.
“Watching the program last year, I kind of knew most of our top girls in the program, so I knew I had to utilize their abilities,” Adams said. “I do have 15 years of coaching college girls basketball, so I was able to adjust immediately. Once you get them to buy in, it’s easy. One thing I know is, the young ladies are very intelligent, and they do a really good job of executing plays. Especially when you have Amaya and Abby, who are really solid players, and you have some shooters, anything can happen.”
Hadassah Hurt
A pair of freshmen from Columbus North played big roles in the win. Emma Beaver put up 12 points, and Hadassah Hurt came off the bench to score nine points.
“It feels really good, especially since it wasn’t us blowing out a team,” Hurt said. “It was a competitive game. We fought hard, we played hard, we played as a team and I think that’s the best we’ve looked all season, and we have definitely coach Adams to thank for helping us out pulling us together and giving us offenses that really helped us.”
“I think the key to our win was having enthusiasm on the bench,” Beaver added. “That’s something we’ve been trying to work on, and that’s one thing that coach Adams told us — we needed enthusiasm, effort and encouraging each other — and that’s what I think helped us win us the game. I think as a team, we played one of our best games this whole season.”
The game was tied 80-80 with 3:36 remaining when Alice Lloyd (5-8) was whistled for a foul and a subsequent technical. Fleetwood went to the line and made all four free throws, and Beaver followed with a free throw and a basket to make it 87-80, the the Eagles could get no closer than six the rest of the way.
“A big thing was our defense,” Fleetwood said. “We communicated, and we were dogs on defense.”
“They played with a sense of urgency, they played with a lot of heart and I thought they played together,” Adams added. “It was good energy on the bench, it was good energy out there (on the court) and they played to win.”
IUC will play an exhibition game Wednesday at Division-I IU Indianapolis, then will open River States Conference play Saturday at Oakland City. The Crimson Pride will host IU South Bend at 2 p.m. Sunday and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods at 1 p.m. Jan. 3.
“I think it gives us a better mindset going into games now that we have a win under our belt, and we’re just confident in each others’ play,” Hurt said.
“We definitely gained some confidence in people,” Collins added. “Just going into the IU Indy game, we at least have a win. We have to go in practice every day going hard just to get better.”
