By Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek connected on 11 three-pointers and the Cougars rode that hot shooting to a 66-53 road win at Quitman tonight.
The Cougars (7-4) avenged a 64-54 loss to the Wolverines (13-6) in the championship game of the Neill Kilgore Memorial Tournament last Saturday night at the Brickhouse.
“This was a huge huge win for us,” said Cedar Creek head coach Lance Waldron. “It was on the road at their place. This was a big-time win for our program against a really good team.”
Jake Doan led four Cougars in double figures with 18 points followed by Jack Bell with 14, Luke Waldron with 13 and Connor Johnson with 11. Brett Bell added six and Landon Hall four points in the win.
“Quitman focused on Jake and so we had to make adjustments and have other people step up and we did,” said Waldron. “It was a team effort.”
Cedar Creek jumped out to a 17-12 lead after the first quarter as Luke Waldron scored eight points, including a pair of three-pointers. The second quarter saw Hall, Johnson Doan each score four points for Creek as the Cougars took a 31-28 advantage into the lockerroom.
“We felt like our game plan going in was to get the ball inside to Jack and some of the other guys, to get a match-up we like inside,” said Waldron. “We did that. But our outside shot was falling tonight. We made 11 three-pointers. In the championship game of our tournament it wouldn’t fall. We didn’t want to rely on the three, but we shot real well tonight.”
The third quarter saw the two teams go back and forth with each team scoring 15 points in the frame, led by six from Jack Bell and five from Doan.
With the Cougars holding onto the slim 46-43 lead heading into the fourth quarter, Cedar Creek wouldn’t allow the home team to rally. Five different Cougars connected on a three-pointer in the fourth quarter as Cedar Creek outscored Quitman 20-10 to pull away for the win.
“We did everything well,” said Waldron. “We played together. Our guys came into the game focused. We didn’t get rattled. When you go to Quitman, it’s an exciting atmosphere, and it’s always packed. We went over there and stayed focused and we didn’t get rattled. Quitman won our tournament last week, and I felt like we got rattled in that game. But we stayed focused the whole game tonight.
“We finally won a game against a winning program. (Quitman coach) Mike Black does a really good job so to go over there and win was huge. It’s hard to beat those guys. They are used to winning.”
The Cougars will host Summerfield Thursday.
