Saige Stahl
By Dylan Wallace
For The Republic
SEYMOUR — Class 4A No. 14 Columbus East came into Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium on Thursday night and picked up its second straight victory, a 70-38 Hoosier Hills Conference win at Seymour.
It was a frenetic pace to begin the game between the two teams. Aside from a few turnovers, the Owls did a solid job breaking East’s press and getting out into the open court.
Seymour led 4-2 early until a 3-pointer from Saige Stahl calmed things down a bit for the Olympians. Harley Gant played a big role in getting the team going early on as well. She converted an and-one early and had five first-quarter points.
East was leading 12-7 until Kendrick Sterling nailed a big 3-pointer in the waning seconds to make the deficit just 12-10 after the first period, which got the Owls’ fans and team fired up.
Albany Speer drilled a 3-pointer to begin the second quarter for the Olympians, and that sparked a 12-0 for East through the first three minutes of the quarter. A 3-pointer from Jenna Guse forced Longmeier to call timeout.
“I thought the biggest difference in the game was their shot-making versus ours,” Seymour coach Jason Longmeier said.
East’s run didn’t end there. The Olympians run got up to 16-0 before Brooke Trinkle finally ended it at the free throw line with 2:53 to play until halftime. Trinkle made Seymour’s first field goal of the quarter with just 10 seconds to play on a fast-break layup, and the Olympians won the quarter 21-3 to take a commanding 33-13 lead into the locker room.
“We changed the defense up just a little bit,” East coach Danny Brown said. “Give Seymour credit. They came out fired up. That’s the way it’s gonna be in the Hoosier Hills Conference being defending champs. Once we took care of the basketball a little bit better in that second quarter, we got out on the break. I thought that second quarter kind of turned the game around.”
Stahl, Gant and Koryn Greiwe all had seven points at the break for the Olympians (13-3, 3-0). Seymour’s leading scorer was Trinkle with five points.
Trinkle scored the first basket of the third quarter for the Owls via a drive to the basket. It was a much more competitive quarter for Seymour, but East still held a 51-26 lead heading into the final frame.
The Olympians had no issues holding off the Owls for the eventual 32-point victory.
Stahl led East with 15 points, while Leah Bachmann scored 14 and Greiwe had 12.
“They’re two of the better forwards and wing players around,” Brown said of his two leading scorers Thursday. “They really compliment each other. Great rebounders. Saige is so quick off the floor, and Leah is so steady.”
As for Seymour, Trinkle led the way with a game-high 19 points.
The Owls were also without one of its best players in Kendall Sterling, who scores and initiates a lot of the offense for the team in purple.
“It hurt us, but I thought some other kids stepped up in her place and did a good job of handling the ball,” Longmeier said.
East won the rebounding battle 45-37, and both teams turned the ball over 15 times.
It was high-octane game that saw East shoot the ball 65 times while Seymour got up 68 shots. As Longmeier mentioned earlier, it came down to the Olympians being able to put the ball in the basket at a more frequent rate.
East will be off until next Tuesday for a highly-anticipated matchup against No. 1-ranked Bedford North Lawrence on the road.
“We gotta take care of the ball better. We can’t do that against Bedford,” Brown said. “They’re number one this week, and we’re the defending champs. We beat them last year, it’s gonna be a battle. We’ll be ready. We got to get focused in a bit better because they’re a great team.”
