After an eight-day hiatus, Columbia Academy returned to the hardwood last week and put together some impressive performances. The Lady Cougars won a pair of blowouts, while the Cougars continued their near .500 pace, splitting a pair of games.
The Lady Cougars (7-3) have been working on their transition game in their bid to play more up-tempo, and their latest two matchups allowed them to work on it while also getting their younger players more game experience.
Playing at home Dec. 1, they made quick work of Laurel Christian with a 64-31 victory, led by Lydia Pace’s 14 points and Kendall Thornhill’s 12.
“We jumped out on (Laurel Christian) early and were able to sustain a lead,” head coach Reid McKay said.
At Wayne Academy Saturday, CA led 23-4 at the end of the first quarter and cruised to another big win, 69-33, behind Peyton McCain’s 21-point, 10-rebound, six-assist explosion. Taylor Dease added 16 points, seven steals and six assists, while Lauren McDaniel chipped in 12 points, eight rebounds and four steals.
“Peyton McCain and Lauren McDaniel have really put together some really consistent games. They’re good ball players that are going to give you 10 to 15 points a game,” McKay said.
While shooting 54% from the field this season, McCain is averaging 14.1 points per game to go along with 7.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists. While McDaniel is averaging just under 10 points per game, she’s been money in the paint, making 68% of her shots.
McKay said the focus going forward is going to be on more ball pressure and energy defensively, which will play into wanting to improve the transition game, as well as the team finding its “sweet spot.” With as talented the Lady Cougars are, the veteran coach said it will be vital to figure out which strategy best fits the personnel.
“How methodical should we be? Should we play full-court defense? Should we play half-court defense? We’re just looking for what our sweet spot is,” he explained. “I think we’re getting closer to that, but we’re yet to establish that against a good, quality team. We’re going to have that opportunity here in the next (few weeks).”
In his return to CA, McKay was hoping the district wouldn’t be too strong, but he’s quickly learned that CA’s district has four really good team, which includes CA. He said CA, Silliman Institute (12-2), Bowling Green (10-2) and Brookhaven Academy (10-2) will all probably win 20 games this year, and there’s not going to be much separation between the first-place team and the fourth-place squad.
The Cougars (4-5) are having a bit of a down year by their standards in the early going but got a big win in their return to the court Dec. 1, downing Laurel Christian 38-32. The Cougars trailed by three at halftime as Laurel Christian was getting to the rim with relative ease, but they made some adjustments defensively that forced Laurel to start trying to score from the perimeter. CA also forced some turnovers and scored in transition to take the lead.
“We need that,” Watts said of the transition offense. “We can’t just rely on half-court offense. We don’t pass the ball and shoot the ball well enough right now to do that.”
Once the Cougars had the lead, they spread the floor to drain the clock and made their free throws to put the game on ice.
Two days later in Waynesboro, the Cougars had a terrible first quarter with multiple turnovers, which led to an 18-3 deficit out the gate. Columbia Academy slowly chipped away at the deficit and made it a six-point game in the fourth quarter, but the Cougars made some bad decisions leading to turnovers that allowed Wayne to pull away at the end to down CA 59-47.
What’s hurting the Cougars the most right now is not being able to make simple passes on the perimeter. Whether it’s poor passing or the recipient not being aggressive enough on the catch, they simply are not doing a good enough job at completing routine passes, which is leading to transition opportunities for their opponents, according to Watts.
The coaching legend said not coaching the junior high teams since he’s been at CA is hurting him now. He added that the two coaches who were coaching them were good coaches, but the players didn’t get to spend enough time harnessing their fundamentals, which he’s making a priority now.
Watts believes Nick Reagan could make a big-time impact offensively in the paint, but he needs help from CA’s guards to make good entry passes into the post, which is a bit of a lost art in today’s game. He added both Carter Rowell and Joseph Hasslevander have been putting up points in bunches at times, but they both need to be more consistent limiting turnovers and forcing shots.
“I could name about seven guys over the course of a game that are giving me three, four, five really good minutes, but then I get three, four or five really bad minutes. We don’t have a lot of consistency,” he said. “Carter Rowell is playing extremely hard and is very serious, and he scored 16 against Wayne.”
There is still plenty of time for the Cougars to find that consistency before district play begins in January, and Watts hopes the nine games will allow them to discover it.
“I think the schedule is good, and we can be competitive with a lot of these teams between now and the first of the year, and when district time comes we should be good enough to compete,” he said. “That’s my goal and objective.”
CA is used to being among the favorites each year to win a state title, and Watts said he believes that will be the case once again in the near future.
“My eighth and ninth graders are special. They’re going to be pretty good,” he said.
Columbia Academy played host to Lamar Christian Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. It will take on Amite School Center at home Friday night before traveling to Pelahatchie Saturday to square off against East Rankin Academy.
