Cougars A Sneaky Play At North Miami
By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews
WINONA LAKE – Lakeland Christian has felt like its made strides in its eight years of membership in the IHSAA and the fabled state tournament. While its had a couple wins in the past three years of the sectional, the Cougars are ready to make some history.
LCA was on the brink of winning its first title last year, but ran into a talented Southwood program that crushed the Cougars in the championship game at Southern Wells. While the Cougars had bigger fish to fry when it was in the Fort Wayne area sectional with Blackhawk Christian swallowing teams whole, LCA has a legit shot at bringing the school its first sectional title in LCA basketball history.
Usually a solid grid, Northfield and Southwood alone are perennial regional contenders but are finding some rough patches this season, though Southwood will be the only team with double-digit wins, with 11 through Tuesday night and winners of six of its last eight.
Luckily for LCA, Southwood is on the other side of the bracket.
LCA (9-10) will deal with Smith Academy first on Tuesday, playing the second game of the North Miami Sectional. A win for LCA would pit the Cougars against Northfield in the semis.
Southwood will get Southern Wells in the sectional opener, with the host Warriors waiting on the winner.
The Cougars are a victim of COVID issues, its season starting late on Dec. 4 and then being idle for almost an entire month between its home tournament around Christmas and the third week of January.
Despite a three-game losing streak heading into the final week of the regular season, LCA has shown a penchant for scoring and scoring big. In an overtime loss to Lakeland, LCA stacked up 79 points, and another overtime game two weeks later, LCA hung its most points since 2014 when it sunk 86 in a win over Lakewood Park.
LCA, however, has dropped its final two regular season games by a combined 56 points to Manchester and Fort Wayne Canterbury.
Jake Ritchie’s first year on the bench has the team trying to finish above .500 for just the second time in the IHSAA era, the only other time a 13-12 season in 2017-18.
LCA has several options to make its offense go, depending on the matchup. Seth Martin generally runs the offense, but as teams have keyed on him, Landon Gause and Silas Gagnon have gained more touches, and consequently more scoring opportunities. Martin is scoring 10 points per game and has the ability to score much, much more when given the window. Gause comes into the tournament scoring 15 points a night, which includes a 30-bomb against Lakewood Park. Gagnon is tossing in almost 10 points a night, and is pulling in close to five boards a contest.
Hunter Rice is right behind Gagnon at 9.5 points per night, impressive for a freshman worked into the starting lineup each night, and Cam Shepherd is the senior leader at eight points per game.
Peter Koller and Ben Jackson have been key contributors off the bench for the Cougars.