Young Cougars swept by Colonels in home opener

By Cody Dalton
sports@southwesttimes.com

DUBLIN – Despite not having two of their veteran players in Raiven Patterson and Nikki Shay for the start of the season, the Lady Cougar basketball team put on a gutsy performance against William Fleming at home on Wednesday. However, after four quarters of play, the Colonels got the best of the Cougars in a close match up, 48-41.

“You look at what we put out on the court tonight,” said Cougars varsity coach Jason Grubb. “We put out two return starters and four kids total that had been on the varsity team. Out of the 14 kids on the roster, Nikki Shay has a torn ACL and Raiven Patterson hasn’t practiced or played at all this year. Those four kids that were part of the starting group did a good job and I could count on them to be sound with ball, under control, and to take leadership. That is why we were successful early on because they got us started that way.”

The Cougars (0-1) got off to a great start in the game, scoring six straight points. Sydney Anderson scored four and Daisy Ball had two points in the early run. William Fleming (1-0) would come back though and tied things up with their own six point run, as it was 6-6 midway through the quarter.

As the quarter winded down, the Cougars would use a late push to take the lead. A three-pointer from Kasey Holcomb would connect and Brittany Lawson had a jumper to end the first quarter, as Pulaski took the 13-10 lead after one.

In the second quarter, William Fleming used their offensive and defensive rebounding to get some valuable fouls and put backs for scores. Towards the end of the second, Fleming would burst out with nine of the final eleven points in the quarter. The Colonels led 26-18 heading into halftime.

Pulaski would come out the halftime break and score six of the first eight points in the quarter. Anderson and Holcomb had lay ups and Ball added a jump shot. That effort brought the Cougars to within four points, 28-24.

The score remained fairly close until the end of the quarter, when Fleming once again had a huge offensive outburst. With the score 32-26, the Colonels would get two free throws, a lay up, and a three-pointer, increasing their lead to 39-26. The quarter would close with the Colonels leading, 39-28.

Being down by 11 points, Pulaski mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter. Fleming maintained their big lead until midway through the fourth, when Holcomb hit a lay up and Anderson followed with a jumper. That forced the Colonels to take a timeout with their lead shrinking to 45-37.

“I was pretty excited at the end of the game,” Grubb said. “We were into it. We were flirting with victory, as we were the whole game. You step back and take a look at it and our kids did a really good job.”

Coming out of the timeout, the Cougars scored again, as Hannah Chaffin got a lay up. The lead was down to six, 45-39. Unfortunately that was as close as the Cougars would get. The time ticked off the clock and the Colonels sealed the tough 48-41 win.

In just her first game on the varsity roster, freshman Sydney Anderson scored an impressive 17 points. Kasey Holcomb and Daisy Ball both had 9 points. Ball also had four blocks in the game.

Before the varsity game, the Lady Cougar junior varsity girl’s opened the night’s play with their own match up against William Fleming. Early on, the scoring and game remained tight. After just one quarter of play, the Colonels held a 13-10 lead.

Things continued to remain tight and at the 3:26, Savannah tied the game up at 19-19. That marked a turning point in the game, as the Colonels scored eight straight points to end the quarter and took a 27-19 lead heading into halftime.

From then on out, it was the Colonels who continued to impress with their defense, limiting the Cougar offense to a small amount of passing and shooting opportunities. Coming out of the break, Fleming would score three more baskets and extend their scoring streak to 12 straight.

That huge run enabled the Colonels to get ahead and stay ahead in the game, as Pulaski just couldn’t catch up and dropped the game, 49-31.

“They tried, but we had a rough practice yesterday and they really didn’t play to the best of their ability,” said JV coach Tiffany Payne. “I had some girls that would do what I asked them to do and did very well. I was very pleased with Sara Wright, Savannah Jones, and Jordan Chrisley. Those were the three that really listened and did what they were told to do and those were the ones that really made things happened. We just have to work on getting our team together and playing as a team and not playing selfish. We are a good team, but we just have to play as a team to be that good team.

The varsity program’s next opponent will be on Friday at the Fairfax High School tournament and they don the same colors and mascot. The Oakton High School Cougars went 30-1 last season with their only lose occurring in the AAA State Championship game. During that game, the team set a record for three-point baskets made with 17. Oakton lost two players from last year’s squad, one of which was a starter, but return three Division 1 prospects, all at the guard position.

Coach Grubb commented after the game about playing against such tough competition early in the season despite having injuries and an extremely young team.

“If we are going to beat the best, we are going to have to play the best,” Grubb said. “Right now, we don’t have a full roster, but we are still playing that tough schedule. Our kids are looking forward to the challenge. We are going to up to Oakton to play the AAA state runner-up last year. They’ve got a very athletic group and a very talented group. They return all, but two players from that team. Only one of those players was major contributor, plus they have a transfer kid from Iowa. They are going to be really tough. Last year, they won thirty games in a row before losing the state game. We know they are going to be talented, but we accept the challenge.”

(12-2-09)