Columbus boys, girls pick up victories against Jordan

The Columbus boys and girls basketball teams walked away victorious in their road games against Jordan on Tuesday. The Blue Devils outslugged a dangerous Red Jackets squad 83-71, while the Lady Blue Devils made short work of the Lady Red Jackets in a 58-18 contest.

The Blue Devils’ showdown with Jordan was the most entertaining contest of the evening, and one that looked up for grabs early on.

Columbus’ Noah Lott and Michael Lewis came out of the gates shooting 3-pointers to build an early advantage, but the Red Jackets stormed back to draw within three points at the close of the first quarter. Jordan hung with the Blue Devils for most of the second quarter as well, but once again some clutch long-range shooting for the road squad brought several potential Jordan scoring drives to a halt.

Lott finished with a game-high 24 points along with 5 rebounds. He was one of three Blue Devils to finish in double-digit scoring, joined by Lewis (16 points) and Tristan Harper (21 points).

“I thought we did something different with our defense,” Columbus boys coach George Williams said. “We shot the ball pretty good, but we still took some bad shots at times. Overall, I thought we played a pretty well-rounded game. We threw something different at them, and they just didn’t handle it very well.”

The second half contained several instances where it seemed Jordan could make things interesting only for Columbus to roar back with big baskets of its own. Jordan guard Quentin Duke came alive in the second half, ending with a team-high 21 points, but it was not nearly enough.

Williams pointed to his players’ solid night shooting as being a good glimpse of the team’s potential.

“If we’re shooting the ball well, we can be a dangerous ballclub,” Williams said. “We’ve just been inconsistent with our shooting. If Michael and Noah and David (Faison) shoot the ball, we can be exceptionally good.”

While the Blue Devils had to fight well into the second half before the game was decided, the Lady Blue Devils took care of business early.

The Columbus girls overwhelmed the Lady Red Jackets from the beginning, outscoring the home squad 15-0 in the opening eight minutes of the game. The opening quarter set the tone for the remainder of the game, and while the Lady Blue Devils were not nearly perfect, it was more than enough to notch another victory.

Columbus’ Thallon Howard seems to be following the path of dominant Lady Blue Devil forwards before her. She ended the night with a game-high 20 points along with 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

“She’s coming on,” Columbus girls coach Joe Cherrone said. “She’s got some big shoes to fill following Ariyah Copeland, Tatyana Wyatt and Jha’Meshia Griffin down there on the block. She did her job tonight.”

The 40-point victory gave Cherrone another chance to mix and match a still-inexperienced team. So far, Cherrone likes what he’s seen.

“Overall, they’re playing well and starting to gel,” Cherrone said. “I’m trying to get them to get the feel of the game and what it feels like to be out there all the time. They’re doing a good job.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 9:40 PM with the headline "Columbus boys, girls pick up victories against Jordan."