Carter Patterson
Columbus East built itself a double digit lead in the first half of its regular season finale Thursday against Bishop Chatard.
In the second half, the Olympians slowly let the lead disappear.
East went cold in the toward the end of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter and ended up taking its fourth consecutive loss, a 59-56 boys basketball defeat in the regular-season finale at the Orange Pit.
“I thought in the second half, hats off to them, they executed really well, and I thought we became very, very undisciplined, and that starts with me.” East coach Perry Nash said. “But when we come out and we’re not disciplined, and we don’t guard people the way that we supposed to guard them, and then we play half court basketball, when that happens, we take bad shots. For us, it kind of steamrolled on us one after the other.”
The Olympians (7-14) need to bounce back in the biggest way. They’ve lost seven of their past eight games heading into next week’s sectional. They played without starter Judah Lewis for the third straight game due to a concussion.
East needs more balanced scoring. Carter Patterson and Keaton Lawson combined for 45 of the 56 Olympian points. Patterson scored 23, and Lawson had 22. Another huge point margin came at the free-hrow line. The Trojans (7-15) finished 22 of 27 from the charity stripe, while East was only 9 of 13.
The good news for the Olympians now is that they have eight days off to rest and recuperate as the records reset to 0-0 for the postseason. East will take on crosstown rival Columbus North in the sectional semifinal of the Class 4A North Sectional at 6 p.m. March 6. East won the Dec. 19 matchup 52-49 in overtime.
“It’s definitely going to be a great atmosphere, a great game playing against North. For us, it doesn’t get any better,” Nash said. “The community will come out and support it. It’s one of the best environments in the state of Indiana, and now we’ve got a couple of days to prepare and so do they. We know they’re going to be well-coached, and they’re going to be ready. We’ve got to make sure that we meet that intensity with our intensity.”
Bishop Chatard 59, Columbus East 56
Bishop Chatard;10;15;14;20;—;59
Columbus East;20;10;10;16;—;56
Bishop Chatard (7-15): Julie Graves 2 0-0 4, Mikey Lake 2 2-2 7, Ari Sahm 6 8-8 20, Alex Lake 3 2-2 8, Aidan Rashidfarokhi 5 4-7 14, Zach McCormack 0 3-4 3. Totals: 18 22-27 59.
Columbus East (7-14): Anthony Cowan 1 0-0 2, Graham Preizer 0 0-0 0, Keaton Lawson 8 5-7 22, Carson Gallion 1 0-0 2, Ben Ellegood 2 0-1 4, Logan Neal 0 0-0 0, Miles Broaddus 1 0-0 3, Carter Patterson 9 4-5 23, Josiah Kiel 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 9-13 56.
3-point goals: Bishop Chatard 1 (Lake). Columbus East 3 (Lawson, Broaddus, Patterson).
