by Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek overcame early foul trouble, used a big third quarter and pulled away for a 66-35 win over Calvin Thursday night at the Brickhouse.
Jake Terry scored 19 points, Jack Bell added 14 points and Cannon Robbins 13 points to pace the Cougars who improved to 2-0 on the year.
The first quarter saw Robbins, Brett Bell and Cameron Temple pick up two fouls each as the Cougars utilized an aggressive full-court run and jump defense. And although head coach Lance Waldron had to go to his bench early and often, the Cougars were able to end the quarter strong with back-to-back three-pointers by Jack Bell in the closing minute to take a 14-10 advantage.
Despite the early foul trouble, head coach Lance Waldron said he didn’t want to take away the aggressiveness of his players.
“We practice defending sometimes with our hands behind our backs,” said Waldron. “I have to watch my substitution rotation when we get into foul trouble early. When a guy picks up two fouls in the first period, he has to come out. I felt good about the situation tonight. There may be some other games where I don’t feel too comfortable with it, but sometimes you have to sacrifice. We have to be aggressive.
“We have a group of guys we can be aggressive with this year. You don’t have that athleticism every year. We feel like we do, and we like our chances being aggressive especially in tonight’s match-up.”
The Cougars pushed their advantage out to 19-10 on a Terry floater in the lane and then a free throw with 6:52 to play in the second quarter. Creek’s lead then ballooned to double figures as Cameron Temple drained a corner three-pointer with 20 seconds to play and then Jack Bell beat the buzzer on a 15-footer to give the Cougars a 30-15 halftime advantage.
“I thought the first half our scoring wasn’t the way we wanted it,” said Waldron. “I thought we improved that in the second half. I was really happy with our defense. I thought we rebounded well, especially offensively. We won the rebounding battle and the turnover battle tonight. Any time we do those two things we know its going to be a good night.”
The third quarter was all Creek. Robbins and Terry combined to score 18 points as the Cougars outscored Calvin 25-9 to take a commanding 55-24 advantage heading into the final quarter.
After scoring just four points in the opener against Saline, Terry bounced back to find his rhythm in the win over the Cougars.
“Jake wanted to come back better,” said Waldron. “He was really disappointed in his last performance, just like any competitor. He really did a good job tonight. He still made some mistakes but his effort was really good. That’s what I’m looking for. Your shot isn’t going to fall every night, but you can always play with effort. He was motivated after the Saline game.”
Both teams used their bench liberally in the final quarter as the Cougars lead was never threatened.
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Cedar Creek Scoring: FG(3FG)-FT-Points
Cameron Temple 1(1)-2-5; Cannon Robbins 4(1)-4-13; Brett Bell 1-0-2; Zack Waldron 0-1-1; Luke Waldron 2-0-4; Landon Hall 4-0-8; Jack Bell 5(3)-1-14; Jake Terry 8(1)-2-19
