Columbus North head coach Brett White, left, and assistant coach Ron Patberg question a call during Saturday’s sectional final against East Central at Columbus East High School.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
It wasn’t that long ago that making it to the regional — or for that matter, the semistate — was almost considered a birthright for the Columbus North girls basketball team.
The Bull Dogs won six consecutive sectional titles under former coach Pat McKee from 2012-17. They won the regional four of those years, advanced to the state finals three times during that span and captured the Class 4A state championship in 2015.
But after 2017, North went through a drought. The Bull Dogs didn’t win another sectional until Saturday when they knocked off East Central 40-28 at Columbus East, avenging an upset loss to the Trojans in last year’s sectional final at North.
“It was longer than what I had hoped, but at the same time, I knew that winning sectional titles is not an easy thing to do,” North coach Brett White said. “The run that we had wasn’t necessarily by luck. We had to earn all those that we did win. It was never easy. It was a long stretch here, but I’m glad we got back to regional.”
The Bull Dogs (19-6) will play 4A co-No. 13 Evansville Reitz (20-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bedford North Lawrence, the site of some of their biggest triumphs. North won regional titles at Bedford in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
White, who is in his fifth season as head coach, was an assistant at North from 2013-21.
“I have some very fond memories of playing down there,” White said. “I wasn’t on staff in 2012, but I was in 2015 and 2017, so for me to go back there, it brings back nice memories. For the girls, I don’t know that it factors in too much for them. They’re just excited to have this opportunity to get a chance play down there. They’ll be prepared and will just relish that opportunity.”
The players are thankful for that chance.
“I’m excited to have this opportunity,” junior point guard Kaylie Harmon said. “I think we have a good chance coming in. We’re going to have a good week of practice, and we’re going to have a good mindset.”
“I think we’re all really excited to be able to do this,” senior forward Kenna Conrad added. “It’s a great opportunity, and we’re just going to refocus and get ready for Saturday.”
The Bull Dogs are only two years removed from taking their worst loss in school history in the sectional, a 75-24 semifinal setback against Franklin at Whiteland in 2024. North had lost to Franklin by three points in the first round at Shelbyville in 2023, when Conrad and senior forward Miley McClellan were freshmen.
“It’s kind of been our goal from the beginning of the season,” Conrad said. “We knew we wanted to win a sectional. We had it as one of our goals, so our heads were there, so it’s really exciting for us to be able to do that.”
“It’s really important to us,” McClellan added. “It’s been our goal every year. It’s hard when we fall short, so when we finally got it, it’s just like a relief.”
Harmon, who reached the 1,000 career point mark in Friday’s sectional semifinal win against Whiteland, agreed.
“It means a lot to us,” Harmon said. “We all knew we could accomplish this. Obviously, it hasn’t been done in awhile, so we’re all really excited to get that.”
“It means a lot to kind of leave an impact instead of just playing the season and nothing coming of it,” junior guard Avery Johnson added. “I’m super excited to see what happens and see how we go out and do.”
A win Saturday would put the Bull Dogs back in the semistate for the first time in nine years.
“We’re just going to take it one day at a time and practice hard every day,” McClellan said. “We’ll try to match what we did last week to prepare and hopefully we’ll show it out on the floor.”
