Cougars sweep Mustangs on Senior Night with 58-38 victory
1/27/23: The Cottage School Cougars played host to AAC foe, the Mills Springs Academy Mustangs on Senior Night. Cottage has just three seniors on their roster and all three scored in a 58-38 route taking both games this season.
Liam Walsh is currently limping around with a knee injury but can stand and move slowly. With it being Senior Night, he hoped to do more than just cheer so in the first minute Liam started alongside his two senior teammates, Michael Coryer and Nick Elliott. His instructions were to stand around the goal when MSA had possession and when the Cougars grabbed a rebound or steal, they would throw a post route for a quick basket. This worked but with a missed layup, an offensive rebound, Liam was fouled and went to the free throw line.
Walsh sank his first, made the books and subbed out for the remainder of the contest in hopes he will be healed by playoff time in two weeks. His senior teammates also put together a good game and will be mentioned below.
MSA took an early 4-0 lead to start the contest, but TCS finished on an 11-0 run for a 11-4 first period advantage. Both teams played evenly in the second stanza and the Cougars held just a slim 22-17 edge at intermission.
Cottage amped up their defense in the third period making a 14-5 run in the final four minutes of this quarter and jumped ahead for a comfortable 46-32 lead. TCS kept the momentum and finished with a 58-38 win.
Cottage moves to 13-9 overall and 8-1 in the AAC with three contests to go before the playoffs. Tuesday the Cougars will travel to Tapestry Charter to take on the Titans in a critical seeding matchup. Tapestry defeated TCS in the first game but lost one later to Howard so both teams are tied for first place at 8-1.
Game Notes:
Senior Nick Elliott was all over the glass hauling in a team lead and career high of 11 rebounds to go with 6 points and 2 blocked shots.
Senior Michael Coryer converted on a fourth quarter basket and grabbed a rebound.
Senior Liam Walsh made the free throw mentioned above.
Andrew Dorsey led the team with 15 points and added 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals.
Maxwell Lagan put in 14 points, blocked 4 shots, snagged 4 boards, and stole three balls.
Braden Kramer had an off-night shooting but still helped guide the team to victory. He dished out 8 assists, had 7 steals, 2 blocks, and scored 5 points.
Jack Kane grabbed 7 rebounds and scored.
Jason Donaldson fell one rebound short of double-digits with 9 boards and added 2 assists and 4 points.
Weston Kershner knocked down a three pointer in transition and gathered 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a blocked shot.
Jackson Barnes scored 6 points (all three baskets coming out of halftime). He also had 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists, and a blocked shot.
The Cougars pulled down another large number of rebounds with 53. They also dished out 22 assists, had 19 steals, and blocked 11 shots. All four categories are not TCS records but are rare accomplishments. This team is the first to record over 20 assists in back-to-back games (reminder, 25 is the record set in February of 2013). All Cougars on the roster scored in the same game for the first time all season!
