By Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek fell behind early and never found an offensive rhythm as the Lady Cougars dropped a 53-43 decision to Ouachita Christian Friday night in Monroe.
With the win, the two teams are now tied for first place at 3-1 in District 2-1A action with both both squads still to face Lincoln Prep and St. Frederick one more time in the coming week.
The Lady Eagles (18-8, 3-1) executed against the Lady Cougars (14-10, 3-1) full-court press much more efficiently compared to last week’s 58-57 victory by Creek.
“We weren’t able to score early to get into it and get our momentum going,” said head coach Katie Hall. “I never felt like we were able to get our momentum going at all. They handled it tonight. They worked on it so give credit to them for being able to handle it a lot better this time.”
After OCS took a 6-0 lead, the Lady Cougars rallied to tie the score at 8-8 on a pair of free throws by Olivia Underwood with 2:58 to play in the opening stanza. However, OCS scored the final three points of the first quarter to take an 11-8 lead and the Lady Eagles would never trail again.
OCS utilized its own full-court press and it caused the Lady Cougars trouble, forcing turnovers that resulted in some easy buckets in transition. In addition to the turnovers, Creek hit just 6-of-22 from the three-point line and consistently missed some opportunities to knock down shots.
“We still have to take care of the basketball and I feel like that was a problem (in the fourth quarter) at our house and it was a problem again here tonight,” said Hall. “We struggled to score. I feel like we were attacking their zone in the first game where tonight we missed a lot of shots that we normally hit. We got in a rut of not being able to score.”
OCS post Mary Louise Hogan had a strong performance in the paint, scoring a game-high 19 points for the Lady Eagles while Kate Woodward added 13 points and Madison Gibson netted 13 points.
The Lady Eagles used a 12-0 run covering the final two minutes of the first quarter and the opening three minutes of the second quarter to build a 20-8 advantage. Mallory Smith, who led Creek with 18 points, scored five straight, Caroline James added a jumper in the lane and Leah Sutherland scored on the interior to keep the contest competitive.
Smith nailed her second three-pointer of the quarter with 1:01 to play to close the deficit to 26-20. Creek had a late possession that could have cut even further into the lead, but a turnover led to a late OCS basket and a 28-20 score.
Twice in the first half, Sutherland exited the game with an ankle injury for the Lady Cougars, but returned both times. Hall said she didn’t feel it affected the senior.
“She is pretty tough,” said Hall. “She walked it off and said she was ready to go. From then on I never saw her favor it and she never let up defensively. She never let up being a leader. I don’t think it bothered her too badly.”
James opened the third quarter scoring the first six points for Creek and a buzzer-beating layup by Smith made the score 39-30 OCS entering the fourth quarter.
An Underwood three-pointer and a Smith fast-break bucket with 6:38 to play in the game pulled the Lady Cougars to within 41-35, but the Lady Eagles pulled away building as much as a 14-point lead with just over two minute to play.
Creek held OCS to just one three-pointer, but the Lady Eagles converted on 21 two-point field goals in the win.
James added eight points while Underwood and Sutherland each scored five in the loss.
