Victoria Cuhadar
For more than 27 of the 32 minutes of Tuesday night’s girls basketball game, Columbus East had a formidable Roncalli team on the ropes.
The Olympians led by nine points with less than five minutes remaining, but the Royals outscored them 19-4 over the final 4:33 to escape with a 52-46 victory in the Orange Pit.
East still led 43-37 with 3 1/2 minutes left, but a 2-pointer and back-to-back 3s by Roncalli’s Brennah Cerny gave the Royals a two-point lead with 2 minutes remaining. Madelyn Poe stemmed the tide with a 3-pointer to give the lead back to the Olympians, but Cerny scored again, and after East was called for an offensive foul, Roncalli’s Taylor Turk hit a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.
“They hit some really big shots down the stretch,” East coach Kaitlyn Phillips said. “We knew coming into this that a big part of how this was going to go was how well they shot the ball from the 3-point line, and they hit some huge 3-pointers down the stretch, which gave them a lot of momentum and also gave them time to set up their full-court press defense which bothered us a little bit those last three or four minutes of the game. So kudos to them, but overall, we played an absolute heck of a game, and I’m super proud of the way that these kids competed tonight.”
The Olympians (1-2) found themselves trailing 7-0 early and were down 9-3 when back-to-back 3-pointers by Victoria Cuhadar sparked a 12-0 run that gave East a 15-9 lead early in the second quarter. The Olympians led 27-23 at halftime and 39-33 after three quarters before stretching it to 42-33, setting up the Royals’ comeback.
Poe scored 15 points, and Cuhadar came off the bench to add a career-high 12 on four 3-pointers to led East. Jenna Guse had seven points and nine rebounds, and Messiah Trapp added six points and seven rebounds.
The Olympians executed far better Tuesday than they did in Saturday’s 56-30 loss to Bloomington South.
“We did compete fairly well on Saturday,” Phillips said. “I think that we just matched up better to this team than we did against Bloomington South. We scored a lot better tonight. We had some huge offensive momentum from Vic, and Jenna and Messiah did a great job on the boards and everyone else kind of filled their role. Madelyn is always reliable at the point guard, so everyone played their role to perfection tonight, and I truly believe that a month from now, we’ll start to see these things come together. Right now, we’re just trusting the process.”
Roncalli 52, Columbus East 46
Roncalli;9;14;10;19;—;52
Columbus East;13;14;12;7;—;46
Roncalli (2-0): Sara Rosco 3 0-0 6, Lydia Stahley 1 0-1 2, Claire Lindsey 2 2-2 6, Jasmine Horsman 0 0-0 0, Brennah Cerny 5 0-0 13, Taylor Turk 5 0-0 13, Elliot Leffler 5 0-0 12. Totals: 21 2-3 52.
Columbus East (1-2): Kenzi Cheek 1 0-0 2, Jenna Guse 2 2-2 7, Victoria Cuhadar 4 0-0 12, Messiah Trapp 1 4-6 6, Caroline Frost 1 0-0 2, Madelyn Poe 4 4-5 15, Savanna Sullivan 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 10-15 46.
3-point goals: Roncalli 8 (Cerny 3, Turk 3, Leffler); Columbus East 8 (Cuhadar 4, Poe 3, Guse).
