by Malcolm Butler
Connor Johnson scored 26 points, Jake Doan added 20 points and Jack Bell chipped in with 14 as the Cedar Creek Cougars never trailed in defeating rival Ouachita Christian 67-61 in the District 2-1A opener at The Brickhouse Tuesday night.
The Cougars built as much as a 15-point lead in the third quarter, withstood a few OCS runs and picked up a big win to start league play.
“It was a great effort,” said Cedar Creek head coach Lance Waldron. “You don’t always do things right every trip down the floor, but it’s always about the effort. It was a dog fight. I was really proud of the way the guys fought the entire game. It feels really good to get the first win in district.”
Early in the ballgame it was a scoring duel between Creek’s Doan and OCS’s Tate Hamby. Doan scored the first nine points of the ball game for the Cougars while Hamby — a Vanderbilt football signee — scored the first 10 for the Eagles.
Waldron said the job the Cougars did on Hamby after the early 10 points was a big part of the Creek win.
“He is such a phenomenal athlete,” said Waldron. “If he gets the ball inside, it’s a bucket. He just jumps over you. We knew we had a tough task. When he gets it he has to be surrounded. We held him to 16 points and most of it was in the first quarter.”
After holding an 18-14 lead after the opening quarter, the Cougars continued to slowly stretch it out in the second quarter as Johnson hit a pair of three-pointers and Jack Bell a couple of buckets. Doan’s three in the far corner as the quarter ended gave the Cougars a 33-25 halftime lead.
The first five buckets of the third quarter were all scored by different Cougars as Creek pushed its lead out to 40-25 on a bank shot by Doan with 6:25 to play in the quarter. However, nine straight points by OCS over a 90 second span forced a Creek timeout with 4:55 to play in the quarter.
The Creek starting five got the majority of the minutes as only two Cougars saw very limited action off the bench.
“Early in the game we got a lead on them and they started pressing us,” said Waldron. “Whenever people press us, it shortens our bench because there is continuity there. It forces people to play a lot of minutes. In a tight game like this every point matters.”
After back-to-back buckets by Jack Bell made the score 48-40 with 1:50 to play in the quarter, Johnson ended the quarter by scoring the final seven points for Creek. The Cougars led 55-42 heading into the final quarter.
“CJ stepped up big time,” said Waldron. “He made some early three-pointers. He got to the rim. He was perfect at the free throw line. They were pressing us so it opened up the floor for CJ to get some good looks in there. He is smart out there and makes good decisions. He did an outstanding job tonight.”
Creek maintained its lead throughout the fourth quarter as the Eagles were able to pull to within 63-58 with 49 seconds to play but that would be as close as OCS would get in the ballgame.
Creek returns to action Friday when it travels to Lincoln Prep.
