Columbus East’s Brelyn Pool, left, and Columbus North’s Sydni Schiefer dive for a loose ball during a basketball game between the rival schools at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
The first few minutes came as a little bit of a surprise for Columbus North in the opening minutes of Thursday’s game with city rival Columbus East.
The Olympians built a lead, but then the Bull Dogs came back and took command to pull off a 58-43 win.
It didn’t come easy this time around for North, which defeated East by an average of 30.5 points in its two meetings last year.
“Obviously, they came out ready to play, and we came out a little flat I thought,” North coach Brett White said. “We just talked about the fact that 50-50 balls were going their way. We were leaving people wide open, and credit to them for making those shots. But we just had to get back to the things that we needed to do to be successful, and that’s defend and rebound, and we were able to do that.”
The Olympians (3-7) jumped out to an 8-0 advantage and built their biggest lead of the game in the first quarter at 16-7. Riley Sims came off the bench for the Bull Dogs (9-2) and provided a huge boost near the end of the first quarter when she made back-to-back 3s to lead the comeback and tie the game at 21-21, and an Ava Wilson basket gave them a 23-21 after the opening quarter.
“Sometimes you have better shooting days, and sometimes you don’t. I just tried to keep my head up and try to stay positive throughout all of it,” said Sims, who finished with four 3-pointers and a game-high 14 points.
North went on a 10-2 run in the second quarter to build a double digit halftime lead of 36-26. Leading 43-32 after three, the Bull Dogs then went on a 13-2 run to open the fourth quarter to lead 56-34 and put the game away.
Following Sims in the scoring column for North were Miley McClellan with 11 points and Wilson and Kaylie Harmon with 10 apiece.
“Riley really helped us out on both ends. Her defense was really good tonight,” White said. “I thought she was active and was able to tip some basketballs and go after some basketballs, and then she made some shots on top of that. She was obviously a driving force for us.”
Ella Anthis led the Olympians with 10 points on two 3-pointers. Lola Watkins finished with nine points, and Kenzie Cheek added eight.
Hayden Meek grabbed 12 rebounds to lead East to a 34-27 advantage on the boards. Kenna Conrad led the Bull Dogs with six rebounds.
North forced 24 Olympian turnovers while committing only eight turnovers themselves. The Bull Dogs also won the 3-point shooting, connecting on seven 3s to four for East.
According to the Jeff Sagarin Rating, the Olympians were a 23-point underdog heading into the game. East coach Kaitlyn Phillips was proud of the Olympians’ great start in the first quarter.
“We knew coming into this game if we wanted to be competitive, we had to have a really good start to the game. I think that’s indicated of the fact that we’re underdogs,” Phillips said. “(North) had a lot more pressure on them to perform today than we did, so it’s a lot easier to play free, and it’s a lot easier to play with a chip on your shoulder, which we did a little bit. It was definitely a huge start, got a little gassed at times that led to turnovers, led to some runs by them, but for the most part, it was a huge effort from our kids tonight.”
Columbus North 58, Columbus East 43
Columbus East;21;5;6;11;—;43
Columbus North;23;13;7;15;—;58
Columbus East (3-8): Kenzie Cheek 3 1-1 8, Lola Watkins 2 5-5 9, Ella Anthis 4 0-2 10, Emma Armstrong 0 0-0 0, Krea Martin 0 0-0 0, Allison Halstead 1 1-2 3, Hayden Meek 2 1-3 5, Brelyn Pool 2 2-4 7, Bailey Rohde 0 1-2 1, London Cline 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 11-19 43.
Columbus North (9-2): Kenna Conrad 2 2-2 6, Ava Wilson 4 1-2 10, Claire Finley 0 0-0 0, Riley Sims 4 2-2 14, Sydni Schiefer 1 0-0 2, Riley Hurt 0 0-0 0, Ava Kerber 0 0-0 0, Kaylie Harmon 3 3-4 10, Rian Strietelmeier 0 0-0 0, Miley McClellan 4 3-4 11, Avery Johnson 2 0-0 5, Addy Wheatley 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 11-14 58.
3-point goals: Columbus East 4 (Anthis 2, Cheek, Pool). Columbus North 7 (Sims 4, Wilson, Harmon, Johnson).
