Columbus North’s Kenna Conrad guards Martinsville’s Emma Potter Nov. 10 at Columbus North.
The Republic file photo
The Columbus North girls basketball team is on its hottest stretch since coach Brett White took over the reins in 2021.
The Bull Dogs are riding a six-game winning streak after dropping their first two games. If they can pick up the victory over East Central on Thursday, it will be the longest winning streak of White’s tenure.
With lots of new players getting significant varsity experience for the first time this year, it was going to take a few games for North to hit its stride as a unit. North has only two seniors and has been starting a pair of freshmen, including leading scorer and point guard Kaylie Harmon.
“A lot of it comes down to confidence and experience and getting into the flow of a varsity situation,” White said. “Since we are young and inexperienced, it was getting into playing together because we played together over the summer, but at the same time, the roles that we had kind of changed from this summer. I think the biggest thing is that confidence factor and seeing if they could compete at that level.”
Columbus North’s Kaylie Harmon shoots a 3-pointer against Martinsville Nov. 10 at Columbus North.
The Republic file photo
After losing big to Class 4A No. 9 Franklin and taking a tough loss to Mooresville, the Bull Dogs have rolled easily against Martinsville, Southport, New Albany and both Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South. Their closest contest during the streak was a five-point victory at home against Shelbyville.
It’s been more about the process versus the result to get the outcome needed during the six-game winning streak.
“We talk about it a lot that we’re not working toward November, we’re working towards January and February. We’ve always pushed the process is more important than the wins and losses part,” White said. “At the same time, when you do have some success and you win, it’s only natural to have a little more confidence in what you’re doing and seeing that the process we’re taking is actually working.”
Granted, it’s been the easier part of the schedule for North, with the past six wins coming mostly against lesser teams. The combined records of the six teams they’ve beaten is 14-46, with Shelbyville the only team with a winning record at 6-4. The strength of schedule also reflects that, according to the Jeff Sagarin rating, with the Bull Dogs coming in at 183rd overall among all schools in the four-class system.
For the past couple seasons, North has won against teams it should be winning against, but hasn’t taken the next step in getting a significant win over a top-tier team.
If North wants to be taken seriously among the basketball minds outside of Columbus, they will have to get that statement win. There will plenty of opportunities to do so when they play top teams in 4A No. 8 Jennings County, 4A No. 6 Center Grove and Silver Creek coming up in the second half of the season.
“Honestly, if you look at some of the teams we’ve beaten don’t have a winning record right now, and we realize that. We know that, but at the same time, it’s about how we’re doing things. It’s about caring for the game plan that we put forward,” White said. “When we do play those (better) teams, the margin for error gets smaller and smaller when you have those teams that are talented and have success. We’re just trying to create habits, and hopefully, those habits carry over to where those little details will help us be successful and help us be competitive against those teams that are ranked.
“We don’t try to look ahead, but when you obviously look at our schedule, January has got a lot of teams in there that are ranked right now, but we feel like that we’re getting better every day. We feel like they should be looking at the calendar, looking at the schedule and say, ‘We got Columbus North coming up.’”
Should the Bull Dogs win a few more games, it will be their longest winning streak since winning 44 in a row intertwining between the state championship season in 2015 and state runner-up team in 2016.
All winning streaks eventually come to an end, but White and the team are looking forward to the challenge ahead.
“Our roles are getting more defined. They are seeing what each other can do, which is important,” White said. “As we see that, we can have success doing the things we’re doing. Even with the tougher competition, we realize that we can still carry that over and still do the things we’re doing now in order to hopefully compete with those teams, as well.”
