Amaya Collins
With an impending winter storm expected to hit southern Indiana and Ohio Saturday, IU Columbus and Rio Grande moved their River States Conference men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader up to Friday evening.
Unfortunately for the Crimson Pride, they ran into a storm early in the Rio Grande Red Storm. The NAIA eighth-ranked Rio Grande women posted a 121-66 win, and the Red Storm followed with a 106-58 victory in the men’s game.
The Rio Grande women (19-1, 8-0) jumped out to a 37-17 lead after one quarter and never looked back.
Amaya Collins led IUC (4-16, 2-6) with 20 points and seven assists. Abby Fleetwood had 18 points and three steals, Nola Linson scored 10 points, Brooklyn McConnell had nine points and Columbus North graduate Emma Beaver added five points and a team-high six rebounds.
Meanwhile, in the men’s game, Rio Grande’s Delon McCloud scored 10 points in the first two minutes to spark the Red Storm (10-10, 5-3) to a big lead early.
“To start off the game, we just didn’t have some scouting report execution,” said IUC assistant coach Jared Brown, who was filling in for head coach James Adams, who coached the women’s team. “We let (McCloud) get going right away and get to his spots and he got flowing right away and that really hurt us and put us down deep. He was one of the guys that we really needed to lock in on. If we could hold him under his average, we liked our chances, but we weren’t in the right spots. He started out 5 for 5, but it got better as the game went on.”
Kyan Reichhoff led the Crimson Pride (2-18, 0-8) with 14 points and two steals. Airrion Boyd had nine points and six rebounds, Jayden Broadnax scored eight points, Trevin Lieck added seven points and six rebounds and Damontae Thompson finished with six points and five assists.
“I think coming off Tuesday (a 132-68 loss to IU Southeast), I think that we rebounded in some areas that we needed to, especially in terms of overall effort,” Brown said.
The IUC women host Oakland City at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Nexus Park, while the men play Tuesday at Oakland City.
“There’s no easy games coming up,” Brown said. “Even the teams that might be on the bottom half, they’re no cupcake. We just have to continue to stay together and continue to work to get better each day. Our guys are still bought in, they’re still bringing great energy and that’s really all that we can ask of them at this point.”
