The Columbia Academy Lady Cougars and head coach Dale Watts are still in a bit of a feeling out phase.
Watts, who previously only coached the boys team at the Marion County private school, took over the girls program this year in relief of Tommy Sumrall and has said it’s going to take time for the Lady Cougars to get used to his coaching style and scheme. The Lady Cougars also simply need time to grow as players and as a team.
“We need to play games because we only have 11 girls. We work hard in practice, but we can’t get the level of competition or what the opposition is going to throw at us in practice,” Watts said. “We can’t prepare for that except for in games. We’re needing to play games, and our preseason run is fixing to be extremely tough. It’ll be a growing time for us, and I think it will be good.”
The Lady Cougars got some more experience just before Thanksgiving in the Brookhaven Classic and dropped their opening game Nov. 20 in overtime 51-49 to Parklane Academy after a big fourth quarter comeback.
“We started off kind of slow, and we turned the ball over quite a bit against their press to give them some easy baskets, especially in the third quarter. We kind of fell apart,” Watts said. “We just had a bad third quarter, but in the fourth quarter we were like 16 down, and the girls really stood up, played hard and managed to come back to tie the game up and push it into overtime. I was proud of them. They showed a lot of courage. In overtime, we made a few more mistakes with turnovers that cost us the game.”
Lauren Rowley led the Lady Cougars with 17 points, followed by 16 points from Morgan Jones.
The following day, the Lady Cougars were able to use a distinct size discrepancy to their advantage with a 48-34 win over Bowling Green.
“Bowling Green, too, pressed us, but they were small and we were big,” Watts said. “We managed to play the game solid enough. I don’t know that we played really well, but it was solid enough. We built up a double-digit lead and enough cushion that we were able to hold on to.”
Jones and Rowley tied for the team lead with 13 points each, while Gabby Sullivan added 10.
The Lady Cougars will host Pontchartrain Christian Thursday night and Centreville Academy Saturday night.
Pictured Above: Head coach Dale Watts addresses the Lady Cougars during a timeout. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
