Photo Courtesy of Columbus CSD Social Media
The Columbus Wildcat girls and boys basketball teams fell in both ends of a Southeast Iowa Superconference interdivisional doubleheader Monday against Van Buren in CJ. The visitors won the girls game 47-41. Van Buren started the game on a 7-0 run and turned that into a 15-10 lead after one quarter, while the Wildcats went through a six minute field goal drought in the second quarter to trail 29-19 at half. The Warriors would build their lead to 11 before Columbus made a comeback. A Wildcat 11-2 sprint between the third and fourth quarters helped the ‘Cats climb within one on a handful of possessions, but they could not take the lead, while Van Buren went seven of eight at the line during crunch time to ice the victory. Following the contest, Wildcat head coach Kasey Keltner spoke with KCII sports about what he saw as the determining factors. “We came out after half defensively and confused them, shocked them a little bit. That was really helpful for us to slow them down and then get something going on our end offensively. It gave us confidence. We got some stops. I think there are positives to take from this, obviously the scoreboard isn’t what we want but, we could have just run and hid after that first half and we didn’t. We competed hard and the girls responded to adversity. That was nice. Kennedy (Woepking) at times was able to score the basketball and help us by knocking down big shots. Ellie (Sanders) and Iris (Garza) stepped up defensively at times and knocked some shots down in the second half to put some pressure on Van Buren.”
Unofficially, Columbus won the glass by six and turnovers 19-16. Van Buren’s clutch free throw shooting and seven made threes, six in the first half, got them across the finish line with the win. The Warriors were led by a 19 point game for Sophia Jirak and 12 from Marlee Mertens. Top scorer for Columbus was Iris Garza with 12, followed by a 11 for Kennedy Woepking. Columbus is 5-9 with the loss while the Warriors rise to 10-6.
The boys game saw Columbus lead early and their comeback bid fall short in a 58-48 loss. The Wildcats were on top 13-12 after the first eight minutes, but thanks to a 6-0 Warrior second period run, the ‘Cats were down at the break 24-20. Van Buren continued to pull away, pushing the lead to six going to the fourth. Down eight, the Wildcats stormed back to tie the game at 43 in the fourth quarter, but the Warriors closed the game on a 15-5 run to lock up the win. Following the contest, Wildcat head coach Jake Korbakes spoke with KCII Sports about what he saw. “(Our good start came from) defensive stops early. Making them earn it. We just didn’t get shots to fall early from guys that normally hit those shots. It just didn’t feel like we got too comfortable offensively. Hats off to Van Buren for what they were doing on defense. (During the comeback), it was about our guys not being scared of the moment. If you’re open, squeeze it and get the shot off. That really opens up everything else. You could see it. The ball was moving.”
Unofficially, Van Buren won the glass by eight and Columbus took turnovers 13-11. The Warriors got 17 points from Will Cocherell, 15 from Jace Duncan and 14 from Landry Loeffler. Columbus was led by 18 from Ellis Hills-Carrier. The Wildcat record sits at 7-6 after the loss while Van Buren moves to 5-11.