Madelyn Poe
The Columbus East girls basketball team learned Saturday it has a long road ahead of them.
The Olympians took away many things that they need to work on after Bloomington South was better in nearly every category to give East its first loss of the season 56-30 at the Orange Pit.
The first quarter was the best quarter for East (1-1). The Olympians found themselves trailing 14-7 early, but found a little bit of spark toward the end of the quarter to cut the deficit to 18-13. That would be as close as they would come.
East was outscored by the Panthers 26-11 in the second and third quarters.
“Overall, I was pretty pleased with our first-half performance, and they just hit a couple tough shots, but overall, I think we competed well,” East coach Kaitlyn Phillips said. “In the second half, we lost our competitive edge. Obviously, it’s really hard to win basketball games when you don’t score above 30. For us, we’ve got to find ways to put the ball in the basket.”
The Olympians were a a disadvantage in the post. They managed only a single 2-point basket after the first quarter. Also, they allowed Bloomington South (1-0) several opportunities at second-chance points. The Panthers had 16 offensive rebounds in the game.
“We‘ve got to figure out how to battle. We are going to be undersized most of the season, so we’ve got to get these girls a little more comfortable with being physical and bodying girls down there,” Phillips said.
The 30 points scored by East Saturday was a far cry from the 57 they put up in the season-opening overtime victory Tuesday against Purdue Poly Engelwood.
If the Olympians want to win more games this season, they‘ll need to find a way to get more players into the scoring column. Madelyn Poe led East with 13 points, and Jenna Guse added 11 to combine for 24 of its 30 points. The Olympians also will need to limit the turnovers after giving up the ball 22 times.
“It’s going to be a matter of us feeling more confident in ourselves,” Phillips said. “We’re definitely not confident in our ballhandling. We’re not confident in our shooting, so making sure that we’re getting good, in-rhythm shots every possession and not turning the ball over. When you have that many turnovers in the game, you’re obviously not getting the shots that you want, so that’s a huge part for us that we are going to have to take care of the ball moving forward.”
East will look to get back in the winning column when they host Roncalli on Tuesday.
Bloomington South 56, Columbus East 30
Bloomington South;18;12;14;12;—; 56
Columbus East;13;6;5;6;—;30
Bloomington South (1-0): Kata Bareda 1 0-0 2, Annika Smith 0 0-0 0, Molli Lucas 0 1-2 1, Alaini Maki 1 0-0 3, Aliyah Smithers 0 0-0 0, Violet Hall 7 0-0 15, Audrey Craft 0 2-2 2, Julia Lashlay 7 5-7 21, Abbie Lucas 5 0-0 10, Rebakah Arnold 1 0-0 2. Totals: 22 8-11 56.
Columbus East (1-1): Kenzi Cheek 0 0-0 0, Jenna Guse 3 3-4 11, Kimberly Carothers 0 0-2 0, Victoria Cuhadar 0 0-0 0, Lola Watkins 1 0-0 3, Messiah Trapp 0 1-2 1, Caroline Frost 0 0-0 0, Madelyn Poe 5 1-3 13, Savanna Sullivan 1 0-0 2, Brelyn Pool 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 5-12 30.
3-point goals: Bloomington South 4 (Lashlay 2, Maki, Hall); Columbus East 5 (Guse 2, Poe 2, Watkins).
