Because of the six inches of snow that befell Marion County Friday, the Columbia Academy Cougars didn’t get to play either of their scheduled games last weekend against Parklane Academy and East Rankin Academy but did get a good test earlier in the week.
The Cougars hosted Jackson Academy last Tuesday night and despite jumping out to a solid lead early on, they fell to 3-4 on the season with a 45-37 loss.
Despite the loss, head coach Dale Watts liked the way his team battled.
“I thought the game was pretty physical, which in hindsight I think was good for us because they had a lot more depth than we did so I didn’t want (the refs) to call a lot of fouls,” he said. “I did feel like we should’ve got to the free throw line a little more. But overall, I was pleased with the guys. We’re trying to get more in basketball shape for us to be able to compete.”
Columbia Academy’s early first quarter lead quickly dissipated before heading to the locker rooms.
“I thought we did well to hold them to only four points in the first quarter. I’m not crediting that all to our defense; I am crediting some of that to their ineptness on offense. JA has a really good team and have a kid that’s a Dandy Dozen (Michael Barber),” Watts said. “In the second quarter, we didn’t finish offensively quite as well and they put a lot of pressure on us, and we let the game get tied up going into halftime.”
While Barber didn’t hurt the Cougars much with his scoring prowess as one of the best players in the state, but he used the attention his 6-foot-7 frame demands to set up his teammates.
“We tried to double him some when he had the ball, and he did a good job finding cutters and open people for the perimeter shot,” Watts said. “He was responsible for more points than he even scored.”
The Cougars struggled throughout the game with turnovers, which is something Watts will focus on going forward.
“The one thing we really have to work on is to be able to handle the pressure. JA didn’t try to guard us very much. They just tried to steal every pass and tried to take the ball away from us in the dribble,” he said. “They were successful some with that, so we got to be a little more mentally tough to handle that pressure.”
Owen Harper led the way with 19 points — more than half of the Cougars’ scoring output — while Tate Duncan was the closest to Harper with just six points. The development of Columbia Academy’s perimeter players, Duncan and Ras Pace, has been a focus since the beginning of the season. Their youth has created a quandary for Watts as his best shooter is a 6-foot-5 forward, whom he needs down low.
“Jay-Bird (Jay Stringer) may be my best perimeter shooter, but he’s a post player. I still can’t afford for him to just start shooting threes,” Watts said. “The other side of that is we are focusing on getting the ball to the post, whether it’s to Jay or Owen. That’s just a big focus in our offense, and the perimeter shot is secondary.”
After a long layoff between games, the Cougars have two big matchups this weekend with Simpson Academy and Presbyterian Christian coming to town Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“Those are two games we’re capable of winning, but they’re going to be two hard games. That’s good for us, though,” Watts said. “We didn’t get our normal Friday and Saturday games with the weather conditions, and I didn’t schedule a game on Tuesday because going off last year’s schedule, I thought we would be in exams the early part of this week, but we have exams next week. So what we end up with is a 10-day period with no games. I have looked at PCS on film, so I know they are really good with good athletes. Columbia and Simpson has always been a pretty good rivalry, and I know coach Crain will have his guys ready. I’m looking forward to really being solid and doing whatever we need to do to win the games.”
Tipoff Friday against Simpson is expected around 7 p.m., while the Cougars will tip off against PCS around 6 p.m. Saturday.
Pictured Above: Tate Duncan drives past a defender. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
