Columbus North’s Kaylie Harmon defends the shot of Jennings County’s Mollie Ernstes during a game in Memorial Gymnasium Tuesday at Columbus North High School.
Mollie Ernstes was hard to stop for Columbus North in the second half.
The Jennings County senior and Kansas commit finished with 31 points, 22 of which came in the second half, to pull out 58-49 win.
“Overall, Mollie found her mid-range, and when she proves she can score at all three levels, she is hard to defend,” Jennings coach Kristi Sigler said. “Mollie was getting great looks, but when she’s not hitting (in the first half), we’re asking get to the rim, get to the free throw line. Her game has come so far, and she was outstanding in the second half.”
The Bull Dogs (10-3) turned up the defense in the first quarter that forced a lot of missed shots by the Panthers. North led 15-13 after the first quarter. The Panthers (10-2) were getting stops of their own, limiting North to just five second quarter points and only led 22-20 at the break.
“When I was talking to our coaches right before halftime was that it was a 22-20 game, and I felt like we had enough stops extend the lead, but we weren’t converting on the opposite end of the floor. I thought we were settling,” Sigler said of the first half.
Ernstes’ shots started falling in the second half. She buried two 3-pointers and converted from the free throw line for 12 points. She was dangerous even when not shooting the ball. Etta Young was a beneficiary of many passes inside from the team whenever Ernstes was contained. Jennings led by double digits 40-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
Young finished with 18 points. Ernstes and Young combined to score 49 of the Panthers 58 total points.
“Etta had a great game tonight,” Sigler said. “I thought she was very good on the boards. She looked to score when she got the ball inside. She took a couple perimeter shots. We want her shooting the ball more, but those two were huge tonight.”
For the Bull Dogs, Kaylie Harmon finished with a team-high 18 points, and Avery Johnson added nine.
“Overall, I thought we did a really good job in the first half making (Ernstes) take difficult shots, but good players are going to do what they do,” North coach Brett White said. “She was able to get some easier ones. Some of it was us. Some of it was her. You’re never going to hold her down completely. I wish we would have made a few more plays down the stretch in the stretch of the third quarter where it did get away from us.”
