Cougars battle through Cobras’ early snake bite and prevail 51-41

2/9/23: The Cottage School Cougars took to the road in their final regular season game of the year versus the CORE Community School Cobras. This is CORE’s (3-9 in AAC) first year in the AAC and has really improved. The first matchup was never close but on this night the Cobra’s finished their season on a high note. Cottage used a second half surge to pull away with a 51-41 win but had to work for it.

CORE came out with high energy and effort on both ends of the floor. Forcing turnovers on TCS’ six of their first seven possessions, the Cougars found themselves down 9-0 early. After two timeouts TCS finally settled down battling back to take their first lead of the contest, 15-14 by the end of round one.

The second stanza continued to sway towards the Cougars side. A couple fast break baskets and a Jack Kane presence inside gave TCS a 29-24 halftime edge.

The Cougars took a deep breath at intermission and slowed the pace down mentally. Cottage only had three turnovers in this third period, racing to their biggest lead of the contest, ahead 45-32. CORE never quit and fought back but the damage was done. TCS finished with the 51-41 win and ended their regular season with a 15-11 overall record and 10-2 in the AAC. This marks just the fifth time in school history a varsity boys Cougar team has earned 15 wins. Congrats boys!

On Monday (2/13) at Cumberland Academy, the #2 seed Cougars will take on rival #3 seeded Howard Hawks at 4:30 PM to see if they can earn a trip to their fifth AAC title game in a row.

Game Notes:

Braden Kramer had a game high of 23 points and 7 assists.

Weston Kershner led the team with a career high of 7 steals. He added 4 points and 3 assists.

Jackson Barnes put in 9 points and 7 rebounds.

Maxwell Lagan blocked 6 shots, had 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and 7 points.

Jason Donaldson hauled down 9 boards and scored a basket.