2/17/21: The Cottage School Cougars played host to the GISA region 5AA varsity basketball tournament. It is the inaugural season for region five, and marks the first time in school history that the Cougars participated as a basketball region opponent. The Furtah Preparatory School Falcons have won state titles a handful of times since joining GISA in the early 2000’s and are in the same region as Cottage. The heavily favored Falcons swept the Cougars during the year winning both contests by an average of 49 points and tonight was no different. TCS was over-matched and struggled from the start offensively. Furtah went on to win 80-29.
The biggest issue for Cottage during the season was breaking Furtah’s full court pressure. The one positive from this game was that the Cougars did improve in that area for the first half, but once breaking the press could not finish with making field goals. The Falcons have All-Region, #23 Inigo Ibanez in the paint and he is the most pure post player in the league. Ibanez dominated the first half with 18 of the game high 24 points and the Cougars found themselves down 38-16 at the break.
The Falcons continued to pressure the Cougars the second half and Cottage finally broke. Turnover after turnover Furtah capitalized and the lead multiplied. The Cougars had no answer and the Falcons went on to win 80-29. Coach Briggs spoke after the contest, “We had to break the full court press to have a shot. We did improve in this area but not scoring on the back end just deflated any confidence the boys had. All credit goes to Coach Whitley and his team. They knew Ibanez was too much for us and went to him early and often. This was a great learning experience for us and we hope it gives our boys the motivation to put the much needed work in this summer.”
With the loss the Cougars moved to 13-8 and will play in the consolation game on Friday versus Fulton Science Academy. Fulton Science lost to top seeded Solid Rock in the other semifinal.
Game Notes:
Kyle Kimble had a solid game. He only scored 6 points but passed and cut well, only converting on two turnovers. He added 4 rebounds and blocked 2 shots.
Aidan Briggs finished with 11 points and 7 boards.
Alex Hogg put in 6 points and also had 4 rebounds.
Daniel Byman put in 5 points and snagged 4 boards.
