Cougars lose to Rams 56-46
1/5/23: The Cottage School Cougars opened the New Year on the road versus the Heritage Preparatory School Rams in Atlanta on Wednesday night. It marked the first varsity matchup with Heritage with them having primarily a middle school and JV program in the past. This season is their first playing a provisionary varsity schedule in the GIAA. The Rams made an early run in the third period and held on to win 56-45.
With a crafty guard, #5-Martin (coaches’ son) and decent size inside, Heritage is on the midst of having a competitive GIAA varsity squad for the next couple of years. Martin slashed up the Cougars for a game high of 28 points, but despite that, Cottage had their chances. Heritage didn’t take their first lead until the final minute of the third quarter 32-31. What hurt TCS was they had a ten-point lead in that stanza and allowed the Rams to hang around, only to make a late run with a few minutes of lazy defense and poor offensive execution towards the end of the frame. Now with the score basically even, the pressure came down on this rebuilt Cougar team.
Heritage continued to take advantage as the Cougars tried to find some confidence and for the next three minutes of the fourth, the Rams went ahead 46-35. After back-to-back TCS timeouts Cottage finally found that spark. The Cougars fought back and with just 1:27 on the clock the score read 50-46 Heritage. A missed shot and then a turnover ended the TCS comeback and the Rams scored off both to put an end to this contest, 56-46.
Cottage is now 8-6 overall and will host the young (they have their own rendition of the “Fab Five”) but extremely athletic and talented Cross Keys High School team on Friday.
Game Notes:
Jack Kane had the best game of his career with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and just one turnover.
Jackson Barnes saved the Cougars in the first half with his rebounding. He led the Cougars with 11 boards and so many of those kept his team in the lead for most of the first half.
Braden Kramer led the team in points with 20 and added 2 steals.
Andrew Dorsey had some nice passes in the post and put together a decent night with 10 points, going 4-5 from the charity stripe.
Weston Kershner played great defensively adding 2 steals and led the team with 3 assists.
