RIVALRY RENEWED
Players and teams tend to raise their games in rivalry situations — scenarios that set up the “throw the records out the window” cliché.
That helps explain the 12-point fourth-quarter lead that Columbia Central, which had won just two of 10 games to open the season, built Saturday against visiting Columbia Academy.
It also explains how the Bulldogs improved to 11-3 on the year, coming back late for a 66-65 victory sealed by a Will Jackson 3-point basket with seven seconds to play and a missed 3 at the buzzer by the Lions.
“It’s not, but it is,” CA coach Marty DeJarnette said regarding the importance of the nonleague, crosstown matchup. “It’s such a huge confidence booster for your team. To beat a 3A team, a local rival, on the road, gives you confidence you can do anything.
“We could have given in, and at times it looked like we were. To come out and perform like we did in the second and fourth quarters, I think it shows there’s something inside us maybe we didn’t even know we had.”
Central, which had lost seven of its previous eight games by a total of 23 points, dug deep to open Saturday’s matchup — scoring 12 unanswered points (seven straight by senior guard Devin Reynolds) to take an eight-point lead six minutes into the contest.
“We get comfortable,” Central senior Eli McCoy said. “That’s when teams come back, when we don’t play like we start. Just keep playing. When you’re up, you’ve got to keep playing, blow people out of the gym. It’s not difficult.”
Yet, CA battled back in the second period and led 29-26 inside the final two minutes before A.J. Pillow grabbed a Keshawn Frierson airball from 3-point range and beat the halftime buzzer to give the Lions a 33-31 cushion.
Out of the locker room, the hosts got their offense going as McCoy hit a pair of 3s and a floater in a 10-2 start. The margin grew to 11 by the end of the third quarter and to 54-42 with 6:34 remaining on a Frierson trey.
From there, Gary Smith Jr. scored 11 of his game-high 27 points, including a key sequence where he blocked consecutive Central shots in the paint, then gathered a loose ball and went the length of the floor — getting to the rim with a eurostep, finishing with his left hand and drawing a foul for a three-point play that made it a 61-59 game with 1:52 to go.
“That was the turning point, for him to take the reins of this team,” DeJarnette said. “Sometimes he tries to do too much, but in a game like this, it was time.”
After swapping baskets over the next minute, Jackson scored off the left wing for the one-point lead.
“We just wanted to get some movement on the perimeter,” DeJarnette said of the go-ahead possession. “Attack the middle and have the ‘kickouts’ ready to catch and shoot. We’ve got confidence in all our players, and it was Will’s turn.”
Following a timeout, Q Martin brought the ball into the frontcourt, drove toward the rim and pitched to a spotted-up Cam Johnson on the right wing for what would have been a gamewinning 3, but it was off the mark as time expired.
“Q was getting downhill, but Gary stepped out,” Central coach Nick Campbell said. “He had a kickout (to Johnson). We’ll take that shot 100 times out of 100. He made the right basketball decision.
“That’s a game we’ve got to win. We’ve got to figure how to win close games. We’ve got to get leads and not relax, take 12-point leads to 20. But we’re getting better. We’re better than we were on Nov. 23, when they beat us (93-73).”
Jackson hit the winning shot, but Smith was the key.
“We knew if we didn’t step up our aggressiveness, we were going to lose,” Smith said. “We stepped up our rebounding and defense and knocked down some shots.”
Martin scored 13 points to lead Central (2-9), with McCoy and Johnson each adding 11 and Reynolds 10.
Early nailbiter: In the girls contest, Central trailed by 14 late in the second quarter, then scored 15 straight points, but couldn’t maintain the momentum in an eventual 62-59 loss to CA.
“We allowed them to get off to a fast start and put ourselves in an uphill battle,” Lady Lions coach Joshua Bugg said after his team slipped to 2-9. “To start off down 10 or 11 and lose by three, we underachieved. We didn’t play well for 32 minutes.”
Columbia Academy (8-7) retook a 10-point lead in the final quarter, but the hosts hit a trio of treys in the final minute to fall just short.
CA’s Averi Slaughter finished with 20 points and five 3s to lead all scorers. Josie Parks and Ryleigh Hamm had 14 each to pace Central.
Columbia Acad. girls 62, Columbia Central 59
CA 22 12 10 18 — 62
CC 13 14 9 23 — 59
Columbia Acad. (62) — Kennedy Chatman 8, Averi Slaughter 20, Madi Lewis 16, Karli Quillin 18
Columbia Central (59) — Josie Parks 14, Ryleigh Hamm 14, Janiyah Riley 11, Zaria Hall 1, Jenice Bailey 11, Makiyah Edwards 8
3-pointers — Columbia Acad. 8 (Chatman, Slaughter 5, Lewis 2), Columbia Central 6 (Parks 2, Hamm 4)
Columbia Acad. boys 66, Columbia Central 65
CA 9 22 9 26 — 66
CC 14 19 18 14 — 65
Columbia Acad. (66) — Tanner Ham 8, Drew Butt 9, Franklin Walker 3, Chase Duncan 9, Will Jackson 8, Gary Smith Jr. 27, Paxton Powell 2
Columbia Central (65) — Keshawn Frierson 9, Eli McCoy 11, DQ Mitchell 2, Devin Reynolds 10, David Bailey 2, Cam Johnson 11, Meach McCoy 2, Carter Szydlowski 3, Q Martin 3, A.J. Pillow 2
3-pointers — Columbia Acad. 7 (Ham 2, Butt, Walker, Duncan, Jackson 2), Columbia Central 7 (Frierson, E. McCoy 3, Reynolds 2, Johnson)
