Columbus East’s Keaton Lawson defends as Columbus North’s Caleb Ferguson looks to drive during Friday’s sectional semifinal game in Memorial Gymnasium at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Columbus North found itself trailing in the first half, after senior point guard Caleb Ferguson picked up his third foul.
As much as Ferguson wanted to stay in the game, North coach Paul Ferguson didn’t panic and sat Caleb for the rest of the first half.
In the third quarter, the Bull Dogs grabbed control. Led by their senior guard, Caleb Ferguson scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to rally them to the sectional championship game with a 55-43 victory over crosstown rival Columbus East in the sectional semifinals.
“We’ve been talking about leadership and poise, and we have some great leaders on the team. It was all about relaxing,” Caleb Ferguson said. “We knew there was going to be a lot of highs, and we knew there was going to be a lot of lows in this game. If we could handle those shifts and continue to play with poise and confidence, you can make a good comeback.”
North (13-10) moves on to face Whiteland, which defeated Franklin 58-50 in Friday’s second semifinal. The championship game will tip off at 7 p.m. Saturday.
When Caleb Ferguson went to the bench in the second quarter with his team leading 16-14, that was when the Olympians (7-15) made their run to jump out ahead 24-18. East led 24-20 at the break.
After two free throws to start the third quarter by the Olympians gave them their largest lead of the game, the Bull Dogs finished off the third quarter on a 19-2 run to lead by double digits 39-28 heading into the final quarter.
“It was pretty simple, we really needed Caleb out there,” Paul Ferguson said. “He wanted to me to play him with three (fouls) in the quarter, but I said, ‘No! We will get there, we’ll be OK.’ Going into the locker room down four, we felt good about that. We knew Caleb had taken some fouls, and I thought we’d be better in the second half and we were.”
Foul trouble also became a factor for East heading into the fourth quarter, with Anthony Cowan, Ben Ellegood and Carter Patterson all having four fouls. Once Ellegood and Cowan fouled out, North got the job done at the free throw line to seal the game.
Jack Whaley had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Austin Perry added nine points for the Bull Dogs. Patterson led the Olympians with 12 points and eight rebounds, while Keaton Lawson had 12 points and seven rebounds and Judah Lewis added 11 points.
East loses seniors Lawson, Patterson, Cowan and Ellegood next year. Coach Perry Nash subbed out Lawson and Patterson for the final time with 7.2 seconds left.
“I thanked them for everything they did. I couldn’t have asked for more,” said Nash, who wrapped up his third season as coach. “Whenever you go into a new program and you have two sophomores that buy into your vision, and they’ve been with us. I hate it for them because they poured their hearts. We came up short, and I hate it for them. Props to Columbus North. They had a good game plan, but it wasn’t our night. They competed and left everything out on the floor.”
North turns its focus to the championship. After big emotional wins, there is always the fear of a letdown in the next game. Paul and Caleb Ferguson both agreed the team will be ready for Saturday.
“The job is not finished,” Caleb Ferguson said. “We have to be prepared for them, and we’ll be ready.”
Columbus North 55, Columbus East 43
Columbus East;11;13;4;15;—;43
Columbus North;9;11;19;16;—;55
Columbus East (7-15): Anthony Cowan 1 0-0 2, Graham Preizer 1 0-0 3, Judah Lewis 4 3-5 11, Keaton Lawson 5 2-5 12, Carson Gallion 0 0-0 0, Ben Ellegood 0 0-0 0, Logan Neal 0 0-0 0, Miles Broaddus 1 0-0 3, Carter Patterson 3 6-6 12. Totals: 15 11-16 43.
Columbus North (13-10): Jack Whaley 2 6-7 10, Ibar Baker 1 0-0 3, Caleb Ferguson 7 7-8 21, Zach Fedor 0 0-0 0, Austin Perry 3 2-4 9, Anderson Horn 2 1-3 5, Ben Kriesant 3 1-3 7, Reid Perry 0 0-0 0, Max Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 17-25 55.
3-point goals: Columbus East 2 (Preizer, Broaddus). Columbus North 2 (Baker, A. Perry).
