It was a slow start, but a fast finish for Columbus North in its girls basketball season opener.
The Bull Dogs spotted Franklin a 16-point first-half lead Saturday afternoon, only to come roaring back to pull out a 58-55 victory.
“I thought, and I think everyone else thought that we could make it back,” junior Riley Sims said. “We never got down on ourselves. We knew we could go out there and do what we did.”
Sims was the spark to the comeback. Trailing 26-10 with 6 minutes left in the first half, she hit back-to-back 3-pointers. North got to within four late in the first half and was within 31-25 at halftime.
“Sims came in the game, and she hit back-to-back 3s that kind of gave them some energy and some momentum and then they were able to get into their pressure a little bit, and then we turned it over a little bit too much in the half-court and they were able to turn those into easy points,” Franklin coach Mike Armstrong said. “I felt like when we could keep them in half-court, we were pretty good, but when they were able to create a steal and get out and run, that’s when they could get their openings.”
Armstrong wasn’t surprised by Sims, who came off the bench to score all 10 of her points in the first half and led the Bull Dogs with five rebounds.
“We saw her two years ago light us up in the JV game as a freshman,” Armstrong said. “She hit five or six 3s in the JV game, so we knew she could be a shooter for them.”
The Grizzly Cubs (1-1) still led 35-30 midway through the third quarter when North went on a 14-3 run to take a 45-38 lead late in the third. But Franklin responded with an 11-2 run to regain the lead at 49-47 with 6 minutes left in the game.
The Bull Dogs took a 52-51 lead on a basket by Miley McClellan with 4:15 remaining, but then McClellan fouled out, and the Grizzly Cubs took the lead back on a 3-pointer by Addy Bright. North tied it on a basket by Kenna Conrad with 1:46 left, and Kaylie Harmon drilled a 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining to give the Bull Dogs a 57-54 lead.
“That gave me chills a little bit,” Harmon said. “The play before, we had just gotten a layup off the same play, so that set us up into getting a wide-open 3.”
Franklin missed a 3-pointer, but North turned it over with 28 seconds left, and Hanna Stewart hit a free throw with 21 seconds remaining to cut it to two. Harmon made a free throw with 9 seconds left to make it a three-point game, and after the Grizzly Cubs took a timeout with 2.2 seconds remaining, Bright was off the mark with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“I’m really proud of the way we handled some adversity with the slow start,” North coach Brett White said. “They responded to some of the things that we wanted them to do, things that we talked about. The second quarter, we started getting on the floor for loose basketballs, made a couple shots, got out in transition better and that kind of led to a better second half for us. We executed well, and started getting rebounds in the second half, and that was kind of the turning point.”
Kailey Harmon
Harmon scored 12 of her game-high 14 points in the second half to lead the Bull Dogs.
“(The slow start) surprised us at first,” Harmon said. “We all had it in our mind that we were going to come out and we were going to perform really well, especially with our team this year with a lot of experienced people. I think that was kind of surprising us, but it kind of led into our mentality to go back out and execute plays like we know we can. In the locker room, we talked about executing a lot, and that’s one of our main focuses in practice. That was one of the things that we came out and did really well. One play led into another play, and I think our energy just kind of kept it up.”
Sims and Avery Johnson each finished with 10 points for North. Ava Wilson had nine points, and McClellan added nine points and five rebounds in her first high school game back after missing last season with a torn ACL.
“We got in foul trouble, so we needed to rely on our bench some today, and they came through for us,” White said. “One of the strengths I think of our team is the fact that we have a lot of people that can score, and when we share the basketball like we did today, we’re going to have success.”
Columbus North 58, Franklin 55
Franklin;21;10;12;12;—;55
Columbus North;8;17;20;13;—;58
Franklin (1-1): Addi Bright 4 2-5 14, Hanna Stewart 2 3-4 7, Ella McCary 0 0-0 0, Journey Frederick 2 4-5 9, Izzy Stillabower 0 0-0 0, Aleah Singleton 5 2-2 14, Amelia Ritcher 1 0-0 3, Addi King 2 3-5 8. Totals: 16 14-21 55.
Columbus North (1-0): Kenna Conrad 2 0-1 4, Ava Wilson 3 2-2 9, Riley Sims 4 0-0 10, Sydni Schiefer 1 0-0 2, Kaylie Harmon 4 3-4 14, Rian Strietelmeier 0 0-0 0, Miley McClellan 3 3-4 9, Avery Johnson 4 1-1 10. Totals: 21 9-12 58.
3-point goals: Franklin 9 (Bright 4, Singleton 2, Frederick, Ritcher, King). Columbus North 7 (Harmon 3, Sims 1, Wilson, Johnson).
