The Columbia Academy Cougars (7-9) have been busy on the hardwood the last two weeks, playing seven games in 12 days and going 3-4 during that stretch.
Most recently, the Cougars played four games in five days beginning last Thursday through Monday, winning two and losing two.
On the road last Thursday, the Cougars were able to outlast Simpson Academy in Magee, topping the host Cougars 48-41 behind Jay Stringer’s team-high 16 points. Owen Harper and Tate Duncan balanced out the Columbia Academy offense with nine points each.
Friday night in Magee, the Cougars struggled offensively in a 48-39 loss to Parklane Academy while Newlon Gillihan’s 20 points led the Pioneers. Ras Pace led the Cougars with 12 points, followed by Harper with eight.
The Cougars finished off their three-day road trip in Amite, La., Saturday night, losing to Oak Forest Academy 73-55. Oak Forest was led by Lavell Scott, who has drawn considerable recruiting interest as a sophomore, who had a game-high 27 points.
CA head coach Dale Watts said that Scott’s ability, combined with the talent of Jenero Porter and Jaden Callura, caused problems for the Cougars.
“There’s no doubt (Scott) and their other guard (are good). We were not able to contain them or slow them down. They got a lead on us, then we came back and tied it up at 34-all,” he said. “In retrospect, I should have made a different decision, but that’s part of our learning and growing process. (Scott) was quicker than us, could shoot the perimeter three and ran in transition on us. They not only had him, but No. 0 (Porter) hurt us and then they brought in No. 15 (Callura), who could shoot the three extremely well, so they gave us difficulties matching up with them defensively either in man or zone.”
While the Cougars defense struggled, their offense established some balance with Harper leading the way with 15 points, followed by Pace with 14 and Duncan with 11.
Watts and the Cougars learned a lot from their matchup with Oak Forest and used that newfound knowledge to secure a 60-43 home win over Leake Academy Monday night.
“I learned from Oak Forest when we came back and tied the game up that we should have spread the floor and utilized our offense as our defense. In other words, if we had the ball they couldn’t score,” Watts said. “Then we may have been able to get them in more space to where our bigs could do more damage and limit their possessions. That’s what we did to Leake, especially in the fourth quarter.”
In that fourth quarter, the Cougars were clinging to a seven-point lead when Watts deployed the spreading the floor strategy, which allowed them to slow the game down and get better shots. That stretched their lead to 17 points by the time the final buzzer sounded.
“That’s a little bit of the identity this team is establishing within themselves,” Watts said. “That’s what I’ve got to do.”
Stringer led the Cougars with 19 points, while Pace added 16 and Harper chipped in 11. Watts said this stretch of games has revealed a lot about the Cougars.
“As the season has come on — we played three games the week before last in our tournament, so we’ve played seven games in about 12 days — I’ve been able to determine what we can and can’t do,” he said. “I’m sitting here with three seniors and four sophomores, and it’s difficult. They’re coming around, but the sophomores are limited in maturity and experience, and the seniors have had a difficult time trying to establish themselves and us as a team in what we’re trying to do.”
Watts added that he likes the way his team has responded through the first half of the season and while it has been challenging, he believes the Cougars are moving in the right direction.
While the public school teams have already began their district schedules, the Cougars are still almost two weeks away with their first district showdown coming Jan. 23 in a home matchup with Wayne Academy. The reason for the late start lies in the redistricting that took place heading into the school year.
Since the district shrank from five teams to four, a decision was made to extend the regular season an extra week and remove the district tournament.
“Our district is a lot different than it was the last two years. We, as a district, decided since all four teams advance that rather than a district tournament, we will have a double round-robin the last two weeks of the regular season,” Watts said. “We’re still playing the week of what would be the district tournament, we’re just not playing an actual tournament.”
The Cougars will return to their home court Friday night against Lamar Christian before taking on Parklane again Saturday night. Tipoff for both games is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Pictured Above: Columbia Academy’s Owen Harper drives toward the rim against Brookhaven Academy. | Photo by Benjamen Sanford
