Nailed It: Hot-shooting Bull Dogs claim victory vs. Olympians

Columbus North has had its shooting woes lately, but in its game with Columbus East Thursday night, those woes were put to bed.

The Bull Dogs drained their 3-pointers to give them a huge cushion at halftime, then went on in the second half to finish the game 12 of 19 from 3-point range and eventually posted a 62-40 girls basketball victory over the Olympians.

Lauren Barker hit six 3-pointers to tie the single-game school recorden route to a team-high 26 points.

“We knew if we kept moving the ball around the arc and hoping these would fall, whether it goes in or in-and-out, or a layup, our shots started falling,” Barker said. “It really started with our defense. We were getting stops, and that propelled our momentum. Knocking down 12 for 19, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The Bull Dogs (7-4) ripped through the zone defense of East (5-8) to get looks in the center of the lane in the first half. Also, North hit its perimeter shots, making five 3-pointers in the first half.

The Olympians decided during the third quarter to abandon the zone and go to a man-to-man, but with the deficit already in double-digits, that strategy may have been too late.

“East is traditionally a zone team, so we worked on that this week,” North coach Brett White said. “When you get a team to go to their secondary defense, then you usually feel pretty comfortable, and we feel pretty comfortable playing against a man defense. We usually run our offense pretty well, and I think we did that tonight.”

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Offensively for the Olympians, Saige Stahl was fed quite often, accounting for 16 of the team’s 21 first-half points. She finished the contest with a game-high 27 points.

Late in the fourth quarter, Stahl eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career.

“It was matter of making her work for her points,” White said of Stahl. “We made sure to try not to foul, which we were doing a lot. It was to try not to foul her, send her to the free throw line and not get putbacks. Some of it we accomplished; some of it we didn’t. With a player of her caliber, you’re not going to shut her down. We tried to control her and made sure no one was able to step up and score more points.”

Along with Barker’s team-high 26 points, Miley McClellan finished with 10, and Hadassah Hurt added eight to lead the North scoring

For East, Leah Bachmann had 10 points, and Allison Craig had three to round out the scoring.

The Olympians had beaten the Bull Dogs by 45 points last year at North.

“We were a lot better last year. We proved that,” East coach Danny Brown said. “They’ve got a nice team. We tried everything. We couldn’t stop their penetration, which has been what’s happening to us all year. We can get beat off the dribble, and then they kick it out. They were shooting lights out tonight. All of them did.

“Offensively, we had a couple players show up tonight. We can’t have that,” he added. “We’ve got to get better in all areas of the game. We learn from it and move on. The season is not over; it’s just one game. Everybody takes a hard look at this game, but I’ve been around a long time. We’ve seen this before. The season is not over.”

Columbus North 62, Columbus East 40

Columbus North;15;12;21;14;—;62

Columbus East;16;5;10;9;—40;

Columbus North (7-4): Kathryn Wilson 1 0-0 2, Lauren Barker 10 0-0 26, Olivia Johnson 1 0-0 3, Kennedy Horn 1 2-2 4, Kenna Conrad 0 0-0 0, Kayla Jones 2 0-1 4, Kaitlin White 0 0-2 0, Miley McClellan 4 0-0 10, Emma Long 2 0-0 5, Sydney Johnson 0 0-0 0, Hadassah Hurt 3 0-0 8. Totals: 24 2-5 62.

Columbus East (5-8): Jenna Guse 0 0-2 0, Victoria Cuhadar 0 0-0 0, Allison Craig 0 3-4 3, Maeleigh Roberts 0 0-0 0, Heidi Murphy 0 0-0 0, Saige Stahl 10 7-10 27, Brielle Stevens 0 0-0 0, Leah Bachmann 4 2-2 10, Messiah Trapp 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 12-22 40.

3-point goals: Columbus North 12 (Barker 6, McClellan 2, Hurt 2, O. Johnson, Long); Columbus East 0.