Columbus North’s Hadassah Hurt shoots over Hamilton Southeastern’s Kennedy Holman during a game in Memorial Gymnasium Tuesday at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
For the better part of Tuesday’s girls basketball season opener, Columbus North played competitively with one of the top teams in the state.
A slow start to the beginning of the first and third quarters did the Bull Dogs in, however.
Class 4A No. 5 Hamilton Southeastern jumped out to an 11-1 lead 3 1/2 minutes into the game, then used another spurt to begin the second half and rode that to a 65-49 victory.
“I like the way we battled,” North coach Brett White said. “We just had those little spurts where good teams make you pay, and obviously, they’re a good basketball team. There were a few layups we missed, and they go down and get an and-one or they get an easy shot. You take those things away, and it’s a much closer game.”
The Bull Dogs had trouble with the Makalusky sisters. Purdue coach Katie Gearlds was in attendance to see sophomore Maya Makalusky, who went for 23 points. Butler recruit Riley Makalusky added 16 points.
The Royals forced 27 North turnovers.
“I’d say it’s a little bit of (jitters),” White said. “I’d say it’s a little bit of Hamilton Southeastern’s length and their physicality. We didn’t necessarily handle it exceptionally well. I thought the first half, we did a good job of drawing fouls. Then, whether it was fatigue, we shied away from it a little bit in the second half, it led to more turnovers than it did their fouls.”
After the rocky start, the Bull Dogs got back to within 19-12 at the end of the first quarter and 31-24 at halftime. A Lauren Barker 3-pointer to start the second half cut the lead to four, but Hamilton Southeastern ran off nine in a row to put some distance between itself and North.
Hadassah Hurt scored 10 points off the bench to lead the Bull Dogs. Barker scored eight points, Emma Long had seven and freshman Miley McClellan had six off the bench in her high school debut. Kayla Jones grabbed seven rebounds to lead North to a 34-29 advantage on the boards.
The Bull Dogs travel to 4A No. 9 Franklin on Saturday.
“We have a lot to work on,” White said. “We obviously have to play better. We’re playing another top-10 team on Saturday. We’ll just work on handling the basketball better, executing a little bit better. The first game, you’re not going to do things perfectly, and we didn’t do that. We have something to build on, though, because we battled until the end. I felt like we kept playing and kept battling. So we’ll use this as a positive, and we’ll get better by Saturday.”
Hamilton Southeastern 65, Columbus North 49
Hamilton SE;19;12;20;14;—;65
Columbus North;12;12;10;15;—;49
Hamilton Southeastern (1-0): Kennedy Holman 1 0-1 2, Maya Makalusky 7 6-7 23, Blair Satterfield 0 0-0 0, Kayla Brinley 0 0-0 0, Teegan Acres 3 2-3 10, Charity Beal 0 2-2 2, Kayla Stidham 0 0-0 0, Riley Makalusky 6 3-5 16, Olivia Brown 12-3 4, Olivia White 0 0-0 0, Addison Van Hoesen 0 0-0 0, Lauren Stewart 1 0-0 3, Maine Hooks 2 0-0 5. Totals: 21 15-21 65.
Columbus North (0-1): Kathryn Wilson 1 3-4 5, Lauren Barker 2 2-4 8, Olivia Johnson 1 0-0 3, Elise Preston 0 1-3 1, Kennedy Horn 2 1-4 5, Kenna Conrad 0 0-0 0, Kayla Jones 0 4-4 4, Miley McClellan 3 0-0 6, Emma Long 3 0-0 7, Hadassah Hurt 3 4-4 10. Totals: 15 15-23 49.
3-point goals: Hamilton Southeastern 8 (M. Makalusky 3, Acres 2, R. Makalusky, Stewart, Hooks); Columbus North 4 (Barker 2, Johnson, Long).
