Columbus North’s Avery Johnson, center, dribbles between Silver Creek’s Lydia Wright, left, and Emma Schoen, right, during a girls basketball game at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, January. 22, 2025.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Like a heavyweight title fight, Silver Creek kept knocking Columbus North to the canvas Wednesday night, and the Bull Dogs kept getting back up.
Every time it looked like the Class 3A No. 3 Dragons had delivered the knockout punch, the Bull Dogs came up swinging. It wasn’t until Silver Creek held North scoreless over the game’s final five minutes that it was able to pull away for a 76-58 girls basketball victory.
“I thought we showed a great amount of resilience because we did have opportunities where we could have folded,” North coach Brett White said. “But we kept fighting, made some shots and then we did get some stops at that point. It’s just when we got back in the game, we needed those stops. I’m proud of the way we fought because we could have easily folded our tents.”
The Bull Dogs (14-6), who started to break out of a shooting slump in Saturday’s win against Whiteland, hit 11 of 23 from 3-point range over the first three quarters Wednesday. But the Dragons (16-2) were even hotter, going 13 of 22 from beyond the arc for the game.
“I felt like offensively, we did enough to win,” White said. “It was just, we didn’t get consistent stops. We weren’t able to rebound when we needed to in key situations.”
After falling behind 27-11 early in the second quarter, North went on a 10-2 run, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Avery Johnson, to cut the lead to eight. Silver Creek built the lead back to 38-27 at halftime.
The Bull Dogs were within 43-35 early in the third quarter when the Dragons went on a 10-0 run to stretch the lead to 18. North answered with eight in a row, capped by an Audrey Nordman 3-pointer, to get back within 53-43. But from there, Silver Creek scored 11 in a row to take its biggest lead at 64-43 with 1:30 left in the third quarter.
Even then, the Bull Dogs weren’t done. Three-pointers by Hadassah Hurt and Kaylie Harmon got them with in 65-49 going to the fourth, and two free throws from Harmon and a three-point play by Ava Wilson cut it to 65-54 with 6:45 remaining. They were still within 69-58 with five minutes left, but went cold after that.
Johnson finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead North. Harmon scored 11 points, Hurt had 10 points and Wilson added nine points.
Brooklyn Renn, a 6-foot-3 junior with multiple Division I offers, led the Dragons with 28 points. Emma Schoen added 20 points and eight rebounds.
“They’re a really good team,” White said. “They just have a lot of scoring options. We tried to play some zone, and they hit shots early. We just didn’t really have a matchup for Renn. But we went man, and we did some things at times pretty well. It just came down to getting consistent stops and getting those key rebounds when we needed to.”
Silver Creek 76, Columbus North 58
Silver Creek;24;14;27;11;—;76
Columbus North;11;16;22;9;—;58
Silver Creek (16-2): Emma Schoen 7 1-2 20, Amira Estephan 2 0-0 6, Emily Robison 3 0-0 8, Brooklyn Renn 9 8-8 28, Hannah Senn 3 1-2 8, Katie Haynes 0 0-0 0, Raegan Cook 0 0-0 0, Lydia Wright 2 0-0 5, Joslyn Chesser 0 1-2 1. Totals: 26 11-14 76.
Columbus North (14-6) Kenna Conrad 1 0-0 2, Ava Wilson 3 3-3 9, Hadassah Hurt 4 0-0 10, Riley Sims 0 0-0 0, Audrey Nordman 1 0-0 3, Kaylie Harmon 3 2-2 11, Avery Johnson 8 0-2 21, Sydney Johnson 1 0-0 2, Addy Dean 0 0-0 0, Addy Wheatley 0 0-0 0, Emma Beaver 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 5-7 58.
3-point goals: Silver Creek 13 (Schoen 5, Estephan 2, Robison 2, Renn 2, Senn, Wright). Columbus North 11 (A. Johnson 5, Harmon 3, Hurt 2, Nordman).
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