By Malcolm Butler
It was raining three’s Tuesday night at the Brickhouse.
Davis Walsworth connected on five three-pointers and Connor Norris added four as Cedar Creek (9-11, 2-2) hit a total of 10 trifectas in its 73-54 victory over River Oaks in District 2-1A action.
Walsworth scored a game-high 24 points and Norris added a season-high 16 points as four Cougars netted double figures in the victory.
“Those two really shot it well from outside,” said head coach Lance Waldron. “Connor and Davis combined for nine three-pointers … and I think they were trying to get a few more in the fourth quarter.”
Both teams came out hot offensively.
Norris hit a pair of three-pointers during a two-minute span to help Creek take a 13-10 lead midway through the opening quarter. Connor Johnson added a three-pointer with just 20 seconds to play in the opening quarter to give the Cougars a 22-14 lead.
“(Hitting three-pointers) opens everything up,” said Waldron. “We missed a lot of good drives that we had where we should have finished (around the bucket). But those drives were open because we were hitting the three’s. They started coming out (to guard us) more and thus that opened up the driving lanes.”
River Oaks (3-19, 0-4) continued to hang around in the second quarter, trailing just 29-23 with three minutes to play before halftime. However, Walsworth scored eight points in a 60 second span to push the Cougars lead to 14. Creek led 39-25 at the break.
One game after being dominated on the glass in a road loss at St. Frederick last Friday night, Waldron was pleased with how his team responded in that area.
“We worked a little bit on being tougher in practice on the boards,” said Waldron. “We will continue to work on it. I thought we did a better job of being tough on the glass tonight. I feel like we are making progress with it.”
The Creek lead was cut down to 41-32 early in the third quarter when Norris responded with a pair of three-pointers over the next four minutes and Walsworth ended the quarter with a three-pointer as Creek took a 56-40 lead into the fourth quarter.
“When we came out the second half they made a little run and then Davis and Connor hit some big threes and that really propelled us forward,” said Waldron. “Hitting those threes does so much for you as far as momentum. When you can get them to fall, it really helps especially when you miss some easy shots around the basket. They fell for us tonight.”
River Oaks never made a run over the final eight minutes as the Cougars picked up a big district win. Waldron talked about his team’s execution defensively during the postgame interview as well.
“I thought our defensive game plan worked to perfection,” said Waldron. “We really did a good job of executing it. We did exactly what we wanted to do against them defensively.”
In addition to Norris and Walsworth’s big nights, Brian Osborne and Carter Hill each added 10 points.
The Cougars host Lincoln Prep Friday.
