LCA Basketball: Cougars Add Another Big Win To Résumé
WINONA LAKE – Pretty soon these will stop being called ‘upsets’.
A clutch runner by Josh McDaniel and a block in the final moments by Landon Twombly sent LCA to a 51-50 win over Oregon-Davis Friday night in boys buckets.
LCA earned its 10th win with the help of an unlikely hero in Jeremy Gross, who played possibly his best all-around game of the year. A pair of Gross baskets helped LCA jump out to a 32-24 lead on the Bobcats at the half, a stunning turn of events considering O-D had a 12-7 lead at one point late in the first quarter.
O-D would take control of the third quarter, going on a 14-4 run out of the lockerroom culminating with a Jonathan Clark offensive putback for a 38-36 lead.
McDaniel would open the fourth with a three, then Gross would be on the receiving end of two assists from McDaniel and Eli Raymond to give LCA a 46-44 lead. Raymond would step up and hit a huge 10-footer to give LCA a three-point edge with 1:35 to go, and after Clark hit a free throw on the other end, McDaniel hit a beautiful floater in traffic with 39 seconds left for a 51-47 lead.
“Our guards did a great job of penetrating and finding him open,” LCA head coach Chris Hohm said of Gross. “We’ve talked to him all season about finishing. He’s had some good days and some bad days. Today was one of those days he stepped up. His energy level and presence on defense was up and he was a great factor for us tonight.”
On the McDaniel shot, Hohm offered, “We wanted to work the ball around and kill the clock, but we didn’t want to give away a great look if we had it. We’ve done it before where we tried so hard to kill the clock and made a mistake and turned the ball over. Josh is pretty good finishing inside, and it ended up being a good look for him. I was holding my breath a little when it left his hands.”
Lance Campbell would hit a three for the Bobcats to cut the lead to one, and after Gross missed the front end of a one-and-one, O-D got multiple looks at a winner. Trevor Risner hauled in an offensive rebound and looked like he would have a clear layup, but Landon Twombly got a hand on the ball enough to alter Risner’s shot as the horn sounded.
“Landon doesn’t score enough to jump out at you, but he does so many valuable things for us,” Hohm said. “He’s our top rebounder and one of our assist guys. He forced a fade away jumper there in the last sequence and got a hand on the rebound enough to affect the shot. He’s the guy who steps up for us all the time.”
McDaniel finished with 20 points, three rebounds and three assists, leading LCA’s need for the three with four treys. Jake Harmon made three of his triple chances and pulled down six rebounds, and Gross’ yeoman work netted 12 points – one point short of his career high – five rebounds and an assist.
Clark was outstanding for O-D (10-8) with 23 points, five rebounds and two steals and Risner added 11 points, but only three in the second half.
The Cougars, now with wins over five IHSAA class opponents, earns just its second win over O-D having to go back to 1995 for the first and last one. The Bobcats were a regional finalist a year ago.
LCA (10-11) hits the double-digit win plateau for the first time since the 2008-09 season when it won 10 games. The Cougars will wrap up with two Hoosier Plains Conference games. Sitting at 3-0, games against Howe Military (1-11) and South Bend Career Academy (4-15) are all that’s left on the inaugural conference plate, one win needed to clinch at least a share of the conference crown. The Howe game is at home Tuesday night and the Academy game is in South Bend Thursday night.