Cougars Knock Off Talented GAPPS Conference Covenant Christian Team For Second Consecutive Time 40-27
Dateline – Roswell, Ga. On Wednesday evening, the Lady Cougars drew the curtain on their home schedule as they hosted the Lady Rams of Covenant Christian Academy in a rubber match between the Ga-400 rivals. The game not only marked the end of home action for the squad, but also served as a swan song for Kendall Betzer and Alyssa Briggs, the two senior stalwarts.
Motivated to maintain their winning momentum, and to win the regular reason series, your hometown heroines played well wire to wire and set the tone in the early minutes. Junior Finley Love opened the scoring with her patented trifecta from international waters. Eighth grader Gabby Pressnall followed with a jumper, senior Kendall Betzer banged home a field goal in the paint to finish a textbook inbounds play, and Alyssa Briggs rounded out the scoring with a free throw. However, CCA retaliated with 4 points of their own as the Lady Cougars exited the quarter with a slim 8 – 4 lead.
Everything snapped together in the second period as senior Briggs asserted herself offensively and as the team used the press to generate a flurry of turnovers. In the same way that a snowball rolling down a slope can touch off an avalanche, the sound start to the second ignited the run that all but broke the game open. Filling up the nets with 10 points, Briggs led the way as Cottage added 14 points to their score, while only surrendering a single point.
After the half the two teams played on relatively even terms, but TCS always seemed to answer any sort of Covenant run to keep the lead at a safe margin. For the final 16 minutes CCA managed to outpace the hometown team by a total of 4 points, certainly not enough to erase the halftime lead. With little over one minute left in the contest the two seniors re-entered the game in order to allow for a final send off from the appreciative fans. At game’s end, the scoreboard revealed a 40 – 27 TCS win.
The team begins their mini-road trip tomorrow with an excursion to Atlanta Area School to close out their regular season series.
GAME NOTES:
Malia Richards, Grace Workman, Boone Bolton-Hogg, and Eleanor Gaffneystone all shuttled in and out of the game with stunning regularity as the coaching staff strove to keep fresh feet in the game to maintain the pressing game. Gaffneystone squeezed off a shot, gathered a loose ball, and wreaked havoc on defense. Bolton-Hogg fought her way to an offensive rebound, claimed three steals, and won over the crowd with an all-floor burn play in pursuit of a loose ball. Richards added to her season totals with a jump shot, a pair of offensive ‘bounds, and a blocked shot. On this night Workman did not enter into the scoring column, but her fingerprints were evident all over the game. She spent the night ball hawking the point guard, using speed and clever hands to nab 4 steals, she pushed the ball for a pair of assists, and ran down 4 rebounds (1 offensive).
Natalie Taylor provided a freshman presence at the center spot as she provided relief minutes for her senior counterpart. Tayor claimed a balanced 8 boards (4 on both ends of the court), and also scored 4 points.
Sara Tolchinsky, Gabby Pressnall, and Finley Love provided 3/5 of the starting lineup. Tolchinsky added to her defensive wizardry and claimed 2 steals in the process. She also dished an assist, and came up with 3 rebounds (1 offensive). Pressnall scored 2 in the early going, fought her way to 5 rebounds (1 offensive), dished for an assist, and grabbed 3 steals. Love added three other buckets to go with the first quarter homerun shot to account for her 9 points. She also played the role of thief extraordinaire as she forced 5 steals, while also recording 2 assists, and 6 rebounds (1 offensive).
On this night the seniors certainly found their moments to shine. Betzer hauled in 4 carooms to go with her 2 points.
Alyssa Briggs found her offensive rhythm in the decisive second quarter as she propelled herself to 21 points – earned through a mix of foul shots, daring drives, and offensive rebound put backs. She also scored a “double double” by boxing her way to 11 rebounds (4 offensive), while also thieving 5 balls, and tossing back 3 blocked shots.
The Lady Cougars thank their hometown fans for the support and encouragement offered throughout this season!