Columbus North’s Kenna Conrad, center, and Avery Johnson, right, battle East Central’s Teagan Leihgeber for a loose ball during an IHSAA girls basketball sectional final Feb. 7 at Columbus East.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Columbus North broke a nine-year sectional drought last week when it captured the Columbus East Sectional.
But Saturday afternoon, the Bull Dogs will be facing a team that endured a much longer drought before punching its ticket to the Bedford North Lawrence Regional. Evansville Reitz won its first sectional title since 1990 and will be seeking its first regional crown since 1981.
“It was a huge monkey off our back,” Reitz coach Brock Stone said. “It was a great accomplishment. It’s been a long-time coming. We hadn’t beaten Castle since 1992, so we accomplished a few things with that win.”
The Class 4A co-No. 13 Panthers (20-2) avenged a regular-season loss to Castle with a 46-45 win in the Castle Sectional final. Reitz led by as many as 16 in the first half and held on for the win.
“We like to get after people defensively, and every time we’ve played that game against Castle, we were back on our heels because they’re one of the most storied programs in our area,” Stone said. “We finally played the game that we like to play.”
The Bull Dogs (19-6), meanwhile, put together a defensive gem in beating East Central 40-28 in the Columbus East Sectional final.
“In the postseason, it always seems like it’s a lower number of possessions, so you always have to be able to defend in the half-court,” North coach Brett White said. “Saturday night offensively, we didn’t perform real well, but what really won the game for us is the fact that we defended. In the past, when we weren’t hitting shots, we maybe didn’t have the effort on the defensive end. So that just shows the growth that we’ve made as a team. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice combination of both on Saturday.”
Reitz features a balanced offense with four players averaging between 10 and 13 points a game. Rhyan Wagner, a 5-foot-7 sophomore, leads the way at 13.0 and is followed by 5-10 senior Samford recruit Bailey Hape (10.9), 6-0 sophomore Kierstyn Kaiser (10.3) and 5-8 sophomore Keilah Mitchell (10.0). Keirstyn Kaiser averages 5.8 rebounds, and 6-1 senior Kendall Kaiser adds 5.6 boards a game.
Like North, the Panthers usually play seven or sometimes eight players in their rotation.
“They really thrive on their defense,” White said. “They play a variety of different types of zones. They spread a 2-3 in the half-court and run some unorthodox rotations out of that, and they really kind of thrive off of trying to turn you over and get easy baskets off that. They’re a high-energy team. When they do get those turnovers, they kind of rev up their defense. We have to make sure we cut down our live-ball turnovers.”
Kaylie Harmon, a 5-7 junior, leads the Bull Dogs with 13.8 points and 3.3 assists a game. Miley McClellan, a 6-0 senior Gannon recruit, averages 9.8 points and 6.3 rebounds, while 5-8 junior Avery Johnson adds 8.5 points, 5-7 junior Riley Sims averages 7.8 points and 1.9 steals, 5-7 junior Ava Wilson scores 7.2 points, 5-9 senior Hanover recruit Kenna Conrad averages 4.9 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds and 5-10 sophomore Sydni Schiefer adds 2.6 points and 4.4 rebounds.
Saturday’s 1 p.m. meeting will be the first-ever between the two schools.
“They present a big challenge for us because they like to drive the ball downhill and get it out to their shooters,” Stone said. “We need to make sure we’re contesting the 3-point line. Harmon and Sims can fill it up, and we can’t let McClellan catch the ball in the middle. If you think that they’re just 3-point shooters, you can kind of fall asleep on 23 (McClellan) in the middle, and she can hurt you. They play basketball the right way. They’re fundamentally sound, and it will be a good test for us.”
