Winners of their last eight games, the Columbia Academy Lady Cougars continue to look like a team destined to be playing into late February with the chance to secure the Class 3A state championship they were robbed of two years ago.
Coming off the holiday break, the Lady Cougars (11-7, 6-0) avenged a Nov. 21 overtime loss to Presbyterian Christian on Saturday, beating PCS 35-28 at home. Macey Jones led the way with 14 points and eight rebounds, while Peyton McCain also narrowly missed a double-double with eight points and 11 boards.
Head coach Dale Watts said the Lady Cougars have improved a lot since the first time they played PCS in November, allowing them to win despite not playing nearly as well as they’re capable of.
“We didn’t play very well. My girls made a lot of mental mistakes and a lot of physical mistakes. We never we could put the game away because of the mental mistakes we made with turnovers. The physical mistakes were things like dribbling the ball of our foot. There’s no such thing as an ugly win — a win is a win and I’m proud to get it — but I was not happy with our performance,” he said. “We have a lot of upside, though, and I don’t think we’ve come close to tapping into our potential.”
Watts said the mistakes were to be expected after being out for two weeks, but CA needs to clean up a few things to reach its “very good” potential. One of the primary concerns the Lady Cougars need to work on is improving on how they handle defensive pressure against good competition.
“We have to get stronger mentally to make those decisions better and quicker,” Watts said. “That’s one of the major things we need to handle between now and the playoffs.”
A continued bright spot in the win was the work on the glass by senior Olivia Adams, who corralled nine rebounds against PCS.
“Olivia does a lot of things that aren’t in the stats, but she is a tenacious rebounder and a team player,” Watts said.
The Lady Cougars played Lamar Christian on the road Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. They will remain on the road Thursday when they travel to Liberty to take on Amite School Center. CA will be back at home Saturday night when Centreville Academy comes to town.
