Kimberly Carothers
For the better part of the first quarter Tuesday night, Columbus East looked like anything but an 0-5 girls basketball team.
The Olympians forced several Bloomington North turnovers in the first quarter and led by as many as six. But the Cougars rallied for a 71-44 victory.
“Honestly, we really did just get tired,” East coach Kaitlyn Phillips said. “It’s hard for us to sustain right now. Even in the kids that we have on our team, a lot of them are fighting preexisting injuries. So we’re only able to do so much in practice, trying to be mindful and trying to stay healthy and balancing that with trying to be conditioned. So we’re just trying to find balance and making sure that we’re healthy and still competing hard for as long as we can.”
The Olympians (0-6) got first-quarter 3-pointers from Ella Anthis, Kimberly Carothers and Lola Watkins and a pair of baskets from Averie Graham to lead 13-9 in the final minute of the opening period. But that’s where things went south. Bloomington North went on an 18-2 run and pulled away from there.
“I hope the girls feel encouraged by (the early lead) and know what they’re capable of,” Phillips said. “It’s just a matter of having some consistency to that.”
Carothers led East with 15 points and four rebounds. Watkins finished with 10 points.
The Olympians have only 15 healthy players between varsity and JV and have been playing only two-quarter JV games. Of the seven regular varsity players, one is injured, leading Phillips to call up a few JV kids.
One of those call-ups, Lucy Ross, had five points and three rebounds Tuesday.
“They are getting valuable experience, and they competed well,” Phillips said. “All of them had really good minutes and did their role and their job. Lucy even went above and beyond and did more that what we kind of expected her to do.”
Despite its record, Phillips has seen progress in her team since the beginning of the season.
“Individually, we’re a lot better,” Phillips said. “We’re handling the ball a lot better. A lot more confidence is coming our way. Offensively, really, we’ve consistently gotten really good shots for the last several games. It’s just a matter of knocking them down. We’re doing everything right offensively. It’s just finding a way to put the ball in the basket.
“That’s kind of been the story of our timeline for the last year-and-a-half, but as long as we’re getting good shots, that’s the most important thing that we can control and we’re definitely building off of our turnovers,” she added. “There’s definitely been some improvement. We just have to keep closing the gap between us and our opponents.”
Bloomington North 71, Columbus East 44
Bloomington North;14;15;22;20;—;71
Columbus East;13;5;7;19;—;44
Bloomington North (5-2): Allison Rensi 0 0-0 0, Savannah Hammond 0 0-0 0, CJ Bell 0 0-0 0, Rilynn Williams 4 1-2 9, DustiRae Dean 1 0-0 2, Ashley Stegmoller 1 3-6 5, Audrey Burton 2 3-4 9, Jossilyn Draughn 0 0-0 0, Kate Lehr 6 0-0 12, Ellie Livingston 4 0-0 9, Lulu Frank 5 1-2 13, Ava Robbenolt 4 0-0 12. Totals: 27 8-14 71.
Columbus East (0-6): Kenzie Cheek 1 0-0 3, Lola Watkins 2 4-4 10, Ella Anthis 2 0-0 5, Kimberly Carothers 6 1-3 15, Krea Martin 0 0-0 0, Jadalynn Hampton 0 0-0 0, Lucy Ross 2 1-2 5, Kierra Capps 0 0-0 0, Averie Graham 3 0-0 6. Totals: 16 6-9 44.
3-point goals: Bloomington North 9 (Robbenolt 4, Burton 2, Frank 2, Livingston). Columbus East 6 (Watkins 2, Carothers 2, Cheek, Anthis).
