Class 4A No. 10 Columbus North played shorthanded against Terre Haute North Friday night when starting center Cameron Wischmeyer was ruled out for the game because of a sprained ankle.
The rest of the team picked up the slack.
Balanced scoring and strong, aggressive defense ruled supreme for the Bull Dogs, which led to a 70-30 Conference Indiana boys basketball rout of the Patriots.
“I feel like our practices weren’t great this week, but we just had to pull ourselves together and come out focused and ready to play after a long week of practice,” Columbus North junior Reese Harmon said. “We had to come out with a lot of energy and get a good start.”
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The Bull Dogs (10-2, 2-0) went on the attack early, with Harmon draining two 3-point baskets, and a Casper Clark layup gave them an early 8-0 lead. The offense stalled a bit for the rest of the quarter, but fortunately for them, Terre Haute North (6-6, 0-2) couldn’t knock down its shots, which kept Columbus North leading 11-5 after the first quarter.
“I thought Reese hitting those two 3s in the first couple possessions was big because they were over-helping on (Blake) Barker, and Reese saw that, and that’s hard to guard when you have that many weapons on the floor,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “That loosen us up early, and those early buckets allowed us to set our press, and I thought we just played a fantastic game tonight.”
The Bull Dogs started the second quarter on a 12-2 scoring run to extend the lead to 23-7. Their defense stepped in to allow only six second quarter points from the Patriots to take a 27-11 lead at halftime.
Columbus North then used a 21-6 scoring run to start the third quarter to put the game away.
Barker finished with a game-high 19 points for the Bull Dogs. Harmon added 12, and Cooper Horn came off the bench with 11.
“Cam is a big loss. We really miss him, but our mindset before the game was to come and not care who scores the points,” Harmon said. “Get that extra pass, and I feel like we did that really well tonight because so many guys did score. We executed that really well.”
Ferguson said that Wischmeyer is likely out for tonight’s home contest against Jennings County, but could be available next week.
