Brett White is a longtime Illinois fan and a native of the state, but he has borrowed a practice of an Indiana coach for his Columbus North girls basketball team.
The Bull Dogs have taken the words of White — and Hoosiers football coach Curt Cignetti — to heart. They improved to 3-0 with a 74-22 rout of Martinsville Thursday night.
“To kind of steal a line from coach Cignetti, we talk about stacking practices, stacking games, stacking plays,” White said. “So that’s our goal right now, to make sure that we’re consistent. From the beginning of the season, we said as we get older, we should be more consistent, so that’s what our goals are right now.”
This game never was in doubt. Leading 6-3 midway through the first quarter, North ran off 16 consecutive points to take a 22-3 lead early in the second. The Bull Dogs led 43-13 at halftime and triggered a running clock when it built a 35-point lead a little more than two minutes into the third quarter.
A couple minutes later, their starters were finished for the night.
“We talked a lot about doing things right, even when we’re winning by a lot, sticking to our game plan and not settling for mediocrity,” junior Ava Wilson said. “That was a big thing we talked about last game, so I think we did really well with that tonight.”
Wilson led North with a season-high 16 points of 6 of 7 shooting from the field and 2 of 2 shooting from the free-throw line.
“I definitely came out aggressive tonight, but it’s just the way the game is flowing,” Wilson said. “Credit to my teammates for getting me in the right spots.”
The Bull Dogs shot 54 percent (30 of 56) from the field, including 53 percent (8 of 15) from 3-point range.
“I think we shared the ball really well tonight,” sophomore Sydni Schiefer said. “I think we worked as a team, and that’s how we got so many points on the board.”
Sydni Schiefer
Schiefer scored eight points and led North with 11 rebounds. It was her second straight game with double-digit rebounds.
“I know my role on the team,” Schiefer said. “It might not be to make a lot of shots all the time, but I try to get my teammates into the correct positions and get all those boards that I can.”
Kenna Conrad scored 12 points for the Bull Dogs. Riley Sims and Kaylie Harmon each scored seven, and Rian Strietelmeier and Avery Johnson each added six.
“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” White said. “We came out with energy. We executed things. We said we wanted to run the floor, and we did that. We passed the ball ahead and shared the basketball. Other than some early fouls, we really strung together some stops defensively. So really, we accomplished everything we talked about.”
Columbus North 74, Martinsville 22
Martinsville;3;10;4;5;—;22
Columbus North;19;24;22;9;—;74
Martinsville (0-3): Brooklyn Conner 0 0-0 0, Addie Curless 3 8-14 16, Sadie Thacker 1 0-0 2, Hayley Stephenson 0 0-0 0, Jersey Huff 0 0-0 0, Harper Jones 0 0-0 0, Ruby Murrell 1 2-4 4, Audrey Haenlein 0 0-0 0, Addy Tarr 0 0-0 0. Totals: 5 10-18 22.
Columbus North (3-0): Kenna Conrad 5 0-0 12, Ava Wilson 6 2-2 15, Claire Finley 2 0-0 5, Riley Sims 3 0-0 7. Sydni Schiefer 3 2-2 8, Riley Hurt 0 0-0 0, Ava Kerber 0 0-0 0, Kaylie Harmon 2 3-3 7, Rian Strietelmeier 3 0-0 6, Miley McClellan 1 1-2 3, Avery Johnson 3 0-2 6, Addy Wheatley 2 0-0 4. Totals: 30 8-11 74.
3-point goals: Martinsville 2 (Curless 2). Columbus North 6 (Conrad 2, Wilson 2, Finley, Sims).
