Columbia knew Wellington was much improved from last year and was prepared for a tough Lorain County League challenge on Dec. 6.
On the Raiders’ court, the much-anticipated battle quickly turned in Columbia’s favor. By the time Wellington got into a groove, the deficit was too much, as Columbia walked away with a 60-37 victory.
The No. 1 focus for Columbia was to overcome the size advantage Wellington had with 6-foot All-Ohioan Brook Lehmkuhl in the paint with 5-11 Gabby Miller.
Despite being undersized, Columbia outrebounded the Dukes, 37-31. Delaney Friscone grabbed 10 rebounds. Rachel Washburn had seven and led the team with 14 points.
“We knew that (Lehmkuhl) was really good,” Washburn said. “We needed to box her out and keep her off the board. I think our post and our guards did a really good job of doing that.”
Lehmkuhl was held to six points as Miller scored five. Guard Taylor Morris scored 19 with four 3-pointers.
As deep as Columbia is with scorers, Washburn had the hot hand with three made 3-pointers in the second half. This came after Wellington’s 6-0 run to open the third quarter.
“(Columbia is) a very good team and they are very deep,” Wellington Coach Nathan Morris said. “They had three in double-figures and almost four in double-figures. They have a couple of main-stays to score, but somebody else will step up. Tonight, it was Washburn.”
Point guard Elise Champagne scored 12 points and Bree Heidecker came off the bench to score 11.
“We moved the ball super well. We were getting comfortable and settling down a little bit. It was super aggressive (to start). We need to remember to relax and play our game,” Champagne said.
Wellington made its first field goal of the night, but didn’t make one for the rest of the quarter, as Columbia went on a 15-0 run to lead, 20-5, to start the second.
“I was really excited about this matchup tonight, because we haven’t played (against) a ton of size yet,” Columbia coach Corey Taylor said. “We are undersized as you can see out there and (Wellington) has two post players that are really solid. I think we did a really good job of getting to the basket in the first half and especially the first quarter.”
Columbia remained undefeated with a 3-0 (2-0 in LC8) record. After a 3-0 start to the season, Wellington dropped to 3-1 (1-1 in LC8).
