Brelyn Pool
It was a career scoring night for Columbus East senior Brelyn Pool.
Pool had plenty of confidence shooting the basketball by draining back-to-back 3-pointers to start the game and finish with 26 points to lead the Olympians to a 62-40 victory over North Decatur Monday night.
Pool finished with four triples Monday and was as just as effective inside with the help of her teammates feeding her the ball.
“The past couple of games, I’ve done alright, but I was really hoping for a good game like this a couple times during the season, and tonight was one of those nights,” Pool said. “I knew we needed a win and so did the team. We all were ready to play.”
At the halfway mark of the season, East (4-8) has doubled its win total from last season. Having Pool back on the court has been a big boost this season after missing last season because of a torn ACL.
“No one knows how well Brelyn can shoot the ball but us. There’s no surprise to us that she shot the ball like that because she’s capable of doing that every single night,” East coach Kaitlyn Phillips said. “She could pull up into this gym and make 20 in a row before she even misses one. She is a lights out shooter, and I’m really happy that this game came together for her because she can shoot the ball well enough to be able to do that every night, so we’re definitely happy for her.”
The Olympians were without Ella Anthis due to an ankle injury. East didn’t miss a beat.
However, it wasn’t a run away for the Olympians early on. The Chargers stayed tight with East in the first quarter and cut the deficit to 18-17 early in the second quarter. The Olympians were hot from the perimeter the finish out the half. Krea Martin hit a couple 3s during a 17-2 run for East to finish out the second quarter and open the lead to 35-19 at the half.
Monday’s game also provided a great opportunity for Phillips to give her five freshman Hayden Meek, Allison Halstead, Bailey Rohde, Emma Armstrong and London Cline plenty of minutes. Halstead finished with nine points, Meek had six and Rohde added three.
“They’ve been a huge part of our program this year, and they’re getting more and more minutes as the season goes on, and obviously, with Ella taking a break right now to heal her ankle up, there’s even more opportunity for the underclassmen,” Phillips said. “We want to give those chances as much as we can, especially this week since we got four games this week, so there is plenty of minutes to be had, so we want to spread that out as much as we can and save everyone so that they’re healthy.”
Martin hit four 3-pointers for 12 points, and Kenzie Cheek added six. The Olympians finished with 10 3-pointers in the game.
