Keaton Lawson
It was a tall order for Columbus East Tuesday night when it took on out of the state’s top Class 3A teams in the Orange Pit.
With two starters out with injury, the Olympians fell behind after the first quarter and couldn’t recover in a 69-47 loss to Shelbyville.
East played without two of its top three players in Carter Patterson and Judah Lewis for the third game in a row. Patterson suffered a fracture in his elbow when he took a hard fall on the ground late in the fourth quarter of last week’s win against Franklin and is expected to be out until at least early February. Lewis is dealing with a back injury.
“When you’re shorthanded and playing four sophomores tonight, they’ve got to step up, and at times, they did, and other times they were skittish because they are still trying to figure it out,” East coach Perry Nash said. “When you’ve got Judah and Carter and Keaton (Lawson) on the floor, you can just be a role player. When you take two of them off the floor, you’ve got to do something more. I think they’re doing a good job of learning that.
“It just takes a little time,” he added. “It’s hard. I thought our guys played hard. I was proud our guys in how hard we played. We executed our game plan, and I was real happy. You only can control what you can control, and I thought we got better tonight.”
Lawson did as much as we could to keep the Olympians (4-5) in the contest. He finished with a game-high 22 points, but it wasn’t enough. Graham Preizer hit three triples for nine points, and Carson Gallion added seven.
“The people that have been playing with us, they need to keep doing their jobs and trusting the team. The sophomores that are coming up to play more minutes now that we’re short-handed, the sophomores have to focus and lock in on plays and work hard in practice and get reps,” Lawson said. “It’s really about the connection that we build with them, and that’s going to help us in the long run for sectional.”
East never led in the game. The Olympians fell behind 17-10 after the first quarter. After a quick East basket to start the second quarter, the Golden Bears (11-2) went on a 14-3 to lead 31-15.
East cut it to 34-23 at the half. The Olympians didn’t get any closer as Shelbyville started the third on a 15-6 run to lead 49-29, and then make it 56-31 after the third.
Damarion Nicholson shared game-high honors with Lawson, finishing with 22 points for the Golden Bears.
Shelbyville 69, Columbus East 47
Shelbyville;17;17;22;13;—;69
Columbus East;10;13;8;16;—;47
Shelbyville (11-2): Damarion Nicholson 5 11-13 22, Gavin Hall 1 0-0 2, Camden Thoman 5 0-0 12, Nick Fischer 1 0-0 2, Brody Runnebohm 1 0-0 2, Gavin Reed 3 1-2 10, Caden Claxton 1 5-6 7, Cole Schene 6 0-0 12. Totals: 23 17-21 69.
Columbus East (4-5): Anthony Cowan 1 0-0 3, Graham Preizer 3 0-0 9, Keaton Lawson 8 5-10 22, Carson Gallion 2 3-3 7, Ben Ellegood 2 0-0 4, Logan Neal 0 0-0 0, Josiah Keil 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 10-15 47.
3-point goals: Shelbyville 6 (Reed 3, Thoman 2, Nicholson). Columbus East 5 (Preizer 3, Cowan Lawson).
