The Cougars (15-8) stayed true to who they’ve been the first two-plus months of the season over the past week, winning twice and losing once.
Columbia Academy dominated Salem Jan. 15 on its home court from the opening tip, cruising to a 74-39 victory. What elevated the Cougars was their willingness to make the extra pass down low on drives to get the best possible look at the basket.
“We work on what we call interior passing,” head coach Dale Watts said. “Whether it’s a zone or a man, (it’s) to try beat that defender and pass it between them. That’s something we’ve worked on hard because that’s what we feel like we have to do. We have to get the ball to the right spot.”
Tate Duncan seemed to have put his ailing back injury behind him with a superb 24-point performance with explosive and crafty drives to the rim. Ras Pace consistently probed the Salem defense off the dribble and kept the Wildcats off balance with a variety of pullup mid-range shots and layups en route to 18 points. Ethan Stringer was dominant, too, scoring 20 points.
However, the Cougars were unable to knock off Hillcrest Christian a second time Friday night on the road. CA previously beat Hillcrest 53-47 Dec. 28 at home, but Hillcrest was able to jump out to an early lead this time and hold off the Cougars in a 46-30 contest.
“The big difference was we were playing on their home court with their home fans,” Watts said. “They had more athletes on the floor than we did. We kind of slowed the game down a little bit because of the athletes they have that can run the floor.”
The Cougars hung with Hillcrest into the fourth quarter, trailing by five with five minutes to play. Watts said Hillcrest quit guarding the Cougars closely, though, and instead sagged off to cut off drives and inside passes, which allowed Hillcrest to pull away. The leading trio for the Cougars struggled to find traction as Pace led the way with 14 points, followed by Stringer’s eight and Duncan’s six.
However, Watts said he believes the loss could pay dividends in the long run.
“It helped us, though. From top to bottom, they are athletic. They can run, they can jump and they can shoot. The time we played them before, they didn’t shoot the three as well as they did at their place. They extended our defense and shot the three well, so we had to contest that and that opened up driving lanes,” he said. “It was good for us because I really feel like they are the team to beat in the South.”
If the Cougars were to meet up with Hillcrest again, it would be on their home court. Columbia Academy is hosting the South State AAA Tournament Feb. 12-16.
It didn’t take long for the Cougars to get the sour taste of defeat out of their mouths as they blew out Centreville Academy 76-34 at home Saturday night. Duncan led the way with 24 points, while Pace added 17 and Stringer chipped in 11.
Columbia Academy finally began district play Tuesday night at Wayne Academy, but results were unavailable at press time. The Cougars will play host to Bowling Green Friday in their second district contest.
Watts said he feels really good about the Cougars chances in district, but he said Wayne Academy could give them some problems with its athleticism.
“I think they are really good, and our boys are going to have a big challenge,” he said. “I do think we can match up with them. They have three kids that can really play. We just have to see how well we match up.”
Pictured Above: Columbia Academy's Tate Duncan runs the floor in transition after blocking a shot. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
