The skid for the Columbia Academy Cougars continued Saturday night as they returned to the court following a two-week break for the holidays.
The Cougars (8-7, 3-3), who have lost five of their last six games, were blown out on their home court Saturday 72-38 by Presbyterian Christian. Cody Fortenberry was the only Cougar to score in double figures, tallying 12 points and three rebounds. Will Arinder chipped in nine points, and Robert Johnson contributed six.
Head coach Dale Watts said PCS didn’t just run the Cougars out of the building; CA wasn’t playing nearly on the same level.
“We’re not playing very well at all. We’ve had too many turnovers, and our shot selection is not good,” he said. “People come up with excuses, but with this particular team missing the summer really, really hurt us. We’re not very big and we don’t shoot the ball that well, so we’re having to scratch and claw. We just haven’t done a good job. We can run up and down the floor, but against teams like PCS and Lamar Christian we can’t just play one game. Missing those 55 games we normally play in the summer, we are behind.
“This team has talent. We have quickness, we have ability, we can do all the fundamentals and we can shoot the ball fairly well, but we’re a streaky team. We haven’t been able to find any consistency anywhere,” he continued. “We started off 6-0. Part of that was the opponents, but part of that our full-court pressure was getting a lot of offense. I knew through the course of the year that was going to be consistent, and we would have to be able to get into some half-court defense and half-court offense. Right now we’re struggling for that.”
Despite returning five out of their top eight players from last year’s state championship squad, all five served as role players who complemented the stars (Tate Duncan, Ras Pace and Ethan Stringer). Watts said there’s a big difference between being a role player and being the go-to source for playmaking, even when you have a lot of game experience.
“These guys haven’t got it figured out yet,” he said.
The veteran coach said his shooters have to start knocking down shots. With the Cougars not possessing a true threat down low and needing dribble penetration to score inside, they have to find balance by becoming an elite perimeter shooting team.
“We’ve got to have good pass-and-catch, and we’ve got to shoot the ball well on the perimeter and the interior. We have the offensive pieces in place to do that, but it’s the turnovers or making bad decisions on shot selection,” Watts explained. “The bottom line is we need to figure out who we are and what we can do.”
The 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. n
