Cougars lose home opener 66-38 to Mustangs
11/3/23: The Cottage Cougars played host to the GIAA Fulton Science Academy Mustangs on Friday night’s Pink Out for breast cancer awareness. FSA’s guard play was too much for TCS scoring 64 of their 66 points from just three perimeter players.
Despite the Cougars struggling to stop the Mustangs top two guards (#5-Green had 28 points & #13-Noohani added 24 points), they did have several chances to take a lead early and later in the third period. After a Jackson Barnes layup, the Cougars were down just 25-35 with three minutes remaining in the third stanza. The Mustangs responded, going on a 15-0 run to end the third and to start the fourth, taking a commanding 50-25 lead with just five minutes left in the contest. That all but sealed the victory as FSA went on to win 66-38.
In the first half, the Mustangs jumped on the Cougars early, up 14-7 after period one. Cottage responded with a strong inside presence and found themselves down just eight at intermission. Key baskets from Jack McGrew and Jack Kane gave TCS just a 19-22 deficit late. FSA closed with two straight baskets for a 27-19 halftime edge. Coach Briggs spoke at the half; “Much better than Wednesday. We already tripled our made field goals in one half! If we can continue getting the ball inside, we can make a comeback and win this game, but we need to clean up the careless turnovers and block out better.”
The Cougars did rebound better but the turnovers led to easy Mustangs baskets. Now all the pressure came down to TCS making a high percentage of their shots in the final period and at this point of the season, the Cougars are still struggling to score points.
Cottage will have two games next week, one more road out of conference match with Greater Atlanta Adventist on Wednesday followed by their first AAC contest at home versus Cumberland Academy on Friday.
Game Notes:
Jackson Barnes led the team with 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Andrew Dorsey put in 8 points and gathered 5 boards.
Jack Kane scored 9 points and hauled in 7 rebounds.
Jack McGrew finished with his first varsity points with four and 2 boards.
Colin Barlow played some solid bench minutes snatching 3 balls off the glass and scored his first ever varsity basket.
Weston Kershner played his heart out and was rewarded with a steal and 2 assists. He also started the game with a splash from behind the arch.
Davis Bradley came in and wreaked havoc and took a charge.