Columbus East’s Saige Stahl, right, takes a shot over Columbus North’s Kathryn Wilson during the annual girls basketball rivalry game at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022.
The Republic file photo
When Thursday night’s Columbus East-Columbus North girls basketball game was stopped late in the fourth quarter to announce that Saige Stahl had reached the 1,000-point mark for her career, the Olympian senior was as shocked as anyone.
“I’ll be honest — I really didn’t know I was close,” Stahl said. “It was definitely a big surprise. I was confused on why there was a timeout being called.”
Stahl scored 27 points in East’s 62-40 loss to the Bull Dogs. The 6-foot-1 Indiana State recruit now has 1,001 for her career and is the ninth Olympian in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
“It definitely was a goal of mine, so to achieve that my senior year is pretty awesome to accomplish,” Stahl said. “It was definitely special having a lot of people around to be able to share that moment with everybody. It sucks that we were losing when it happened, but it is what it is. ”
Columbus East’s Saige Stahl, left, drives past East Central’s Brooke Carpenter during a basketball game at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.
The Republic file photo
Stahl leads East with 24.8 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game. Olympians coach Danny Brown doesn’t think he has had anyone average a double-double for a season since McKayla Barber led them to the state finals in 2006-07.
“She’s just someone who wants to get better,” Brown said of Stahl. “She takes extra shots after practice every day. She knew she needed to work on her outside shots, and she’s done that. I don’t know if I’ve had a player as mentally and as physically as tough as Saige is.”
Stahl’s 97 made free throws rank first in the state and fifth in the nation.
“She’s going to get to the line. She has such a quick step off the floor to get to the basket. She’s determined to get rebounds, get to the basket any way she can. She just has an incredible motor.”
Stahl also ranks ninth in school history with 537 career rebounds. Brown pointed out that Stahl has reached the 1,000-point milestone midway through her senior year despite missing the first six games of her sophomore season because of contract tracing for COVID.
“You get 1,000 points by being consistent, and she’s been consistent all year long,” Brown said. “She’s scored 20+ points in every game, and to do that against the quality of teams we play, the Hamilton Southeasterns, the Fishers, the Ben Davises. Teams are looking to double-team her, but she still can score. She’s just been so consistent.”
An Indiana Junior All-Star last year, Stahl hopes to become an Indiana All-Star this season. She also wants to lead the 5-8 Olympians to a second-half-of-the-season surge.
“It’s not really going the way we want it to go, but there’s still a long season ahead of us,” Stahl said. “Hopefully, we can turn that around and get it going, especially right before sectional. Even though we can’t win conference, we want to take it pretty far in sectional and hopefully win that.”
