The Columbia Academy Cougars (13-11, 2-0) finally got back over the .500 hump and established themselves as the frontrunners in MAIS AAA District 4, winning all three of their contests last week.
The Cougars got the ball rolling last Tuesday at home, demolishing Wayne Academy 70-23 with four players scoring in double figures to begin district play.
Owen Harper paced the Cougars with 23 points, followed by Ethan Stringer with 14, Ras Pace 13 and Tate Duncan 11.
The Cougars then made the trek down to Franklinton, La., Friday night for a tough road contest with Bowling Green but were able to pull out the 35-32 victory.
The Cougars were up four with under a minute to play in the fourth quarter, but the Buccaneers made a three-pointer to cut the CA lead down to one. Both teams traded turnovers before Pace was fouled and made both free throws to make it 35-32. With less than 15 seconds on the clock, head coach Dale Watts faced one of the age-old debates in basketball.
“You hear it on TV all the time (with a three-point lead late) — do you foul or defend?” he said. “I’m not saying I never will, but I’m not one to put them on the line and take a risk that they’ll throw it up and the ref call a shooting foul. We guarded them well, and they never got a clean look. They finally let one fly about eight feet behind the three-point line with a hand in their face, and it went off the rim as the horn went off. It would’ve counted.”
The offensive system the Buccaneers run poses challenges for any high school defense.
“Bowling Green relies on the three-point shot. We played good defense, but we would break down here and there,” Watts said. “The most we were up was eight, but it should have been more than that. Instead of it going from eight to 12, it would go from eight back to three or four. They hit some timely three-pointers. It was a tough game.”
On top of facing a tough-to-defend three-point centric team, the Cougars were faced with dealing with a rowdy environment in Louisiana.
“I’ve had several state champion (teams) get beat down at Bowling Green. It’s a hard place to play,” Watts said. “They love their basketball down there. The crowd was in it, and it was just a tough game.”
Harper led the Cougars with 16 points as the lone CA player to reach double figures in the score book. Pace added some timely baskets and finished with eight points to help the Cougars get their second district win.
Watts said that getting off to a 2-0 start in district play is huge, especially this season because the district will be decided strictly off regular season play with no tournament to be played. He added that he views each district game as playoff games as a result of the double round robin setup.
Columbia Academy returned to its home court Saturday night and bested Oak Forest Academy 54-45 in a non-district game.
Twenty-one points from Harper helped the Cougars, as did Duncan’s 17 points and Pace’s 15 in the back-and-forth affair.
“Right now we are sizing up our opponents to determine what type of game we have to play. With Wayne and Bowling Green, we stayed on an opportunistic, fast break type game. With Oak Forest and their perimeter speed and shooting, we didn’t think we could do that,” Watts explained. “We did start off with a lead, though. They surprised me when they went to man-to-man (defense) early, and we were able to score and make it a possession game.”
It has taken some time for the Cougars to establish their identity, but they have embraced their strengths and weaknesses.
“My guys have adjusted to the fact that we are what we are and can do what we can do, and we can’t do what we can’t do,” Watts said. “One thing that we’ve got to do that we didn’t do against Oak Forest is make free throws. We should’ve beat them by 16 or 18 if we made free throws. We did just enough to keep it out of reach. But I think the guys are getting comfortable in the game we’re playing and like it. We’re growing and that’s a big deal.”
Columbia Academy played host to Laurel Christian Tuesday night, but results were not available at press time. The Cougars will head to Wayne Academy Friday night for a rematch with tipoff scheduled for 7. They will play in Hattiesburg Saturday night, taking on Presbyterian Christian at 6. The Cougars senior night will be Tuesday as they play host to Bowling Green.
Pictured Above: CA's Ethan Stringer drives into the paint. | Photo by Mark Rogers
