Cougars Drop Two On Day One
WINONA LAKE — It was the first day of the annual Cougar Classic and it did not quite go according to plan for the Lakeland Christian boys basketball team. The Cougars dropped both of their games to Trinity and Covenant Christian.
In the morning game with Trinity LCA dug itself an early hole that it simply could not get out of. A senior led Trinity squad won 52-41.
The Cougars fell behind 14-3 after the first quarter before finding any rhythm on offense. LCA outscored the Titans 11-10 in the second quarter to close the gap but would fall behind 40-24 by the end of the third quarter. Despite the large deficit LCa did not quit in the final frame.
The Cougars were able to put together several runs in order to cut the Titan lead down to eight. Trinity kept getting sent to the line but repeatedly missed its free throw attempts allowing the Cougars to hang around. The Titans finished the game just 10-21 from the charity stripe, LCA was 6-6.
Despite the gifted possession from Trinity, LCA could not seem to get out of its own way on the offensive end. Rushed shots and careless turnovers prevented the Cougars from ever getting closer than eight points. While a sense of urgency was needed, the Cougars did not adjust well after playing very timidly to start the game.
Tuesday’s game was the third meeting between the Cougars and Titans this season. Trinity won the first two meetings 77-42 and 63-52, respectively.
“We’ve come so far from last year,” said LCA head coach Christopher Hohm. “Last year if we fell behind 14-3 after the first quarter it would’ve been a 30 or 40-point loss. We were consistently in that range when losing games. Now we’re learning how to compete.
“We have to learn how to win now. We haven’t learned that yet. Once we learn how to win they’ll see that success carry over. We talked after the game about playing with more of an urgency throughout the entire game and not just in the fourth quarter. That’s probably our biggest focus moving forward.”
LCA was led offensively by Josh McDaniel’s 10 points. Jon Harmon added nine more for the Cougars. Trinity was led by David Preuss’ 15 points.
The Cougars dropped the second game to Covenant 83-50. Harmon and McDaniel led the team with 13 points. Carter Twombly added 10 for LCA.
LCA (0-9) will play Granger Christian in the 5th place game at 10 a.m at the Orthopedic Capital Center on Wednesday.