by Malcolm Butler
Both the Cedar Creek boys and girls dropped their final game of the 2023 Neill Kilgore Tournament Saturday at The Brickhouse.
Quitman 64, Cougars 54
In the championship game on the boys side, the Cougars fell behind 40-23 at halftime and couldn’t complete a comeback in falling to Quitman.
Connor Johnson led the way with 21 points while Jake Doan added 16 points as the Cougars fell to 5-4 on the season. Jack Bell added nine points and Brett Bell chipped in with six in the loss.
Quitman (12-4) built an 18-13 lead after the first quarter despite Doan and Johnson combining for 10 first quarter points and then upped the advantage to 40-23 at the half.
The Cougars closed the gap to 51-36 at the end of the third quarter before outscoring Quitman 18-13 in the final stanza.
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Quitman 36, Lady Cougars 29
Despite holding Quitman scoreless in the opening quarter, the Lady Cougars weren’t able to overcome a 28-point performance by Cali Deal in falling 36-29 on Saturday.
Olivia Underwood, Caroline James and Leah Sutherland each scored six points to lead Creek (5-6).
The Lady Cougars, playing without leading scorer Mallory Smith due to injury, led 7-0 through the first quarter before seeing Quitman (11-6) take a 16-13 halftime advantage. Underwood led the Cougars in the first half with all six of her points.
The third quarter proved to be the deciding factor as Quitman outscored Creek 10-2 to take a 26-15 advantage with the Lady Cougars lone bucket coming from Zoey Venters.
The Creek JV boys and girls, varsity girls and varsity boys will host Calvin tonight at The Brickhouse with the first game starting at 5 p.m.
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Carroll 43, Lady Cougars 42
The Lady Cougars dropped a heartbreaker on Friday night as Carroll hit the game-winning three-pointer with 1.8 seconds to play to defeat Creek 43-42 in the second night of the Neill Kilgore Memorial Tournament at the Brickhouse.
Leah Sutherland led the Lady Cougars with 12 points while Mary Grace Hawkins added nine points and Zoey Venters eight points.
Creek led 15-7 after the first quarter as freshman Alivia Lee led the way with six points and Sutherland chipped in with five.
Despite struggling offensively in the second quarter, the Lady Cougars still held a 19-15 advantage at halftime.
Carroll came out in the third quarter and erupted for 19 points and built a double digit advantage at one point before the Lady Cougars rallied to trail just 34-29 heading into the fourth and final stanza.
Hawkins scored seven points and Sutherland added four points in the fourth quarter as the Lady Cougars led 42-40 before the Lady Bulldogs hit the game-winning three-pointer in the closing seconds.
