Cougars Season Ended By Bengals

For the second straight year, the Lady Cougars went to the Region IV, Division Four playoffs to face Bassett in the first round. Unlike last year though, the Cougars were bested by the Bengals as Pulaski’s season ended with a 56-45 loss on Tuesday.

“Bassett is a good team and well balanced,” said Cougars coach Jason Grubb. “They have some kids that can score outside and some penetrators and post players that played really well tonight. I felt like our girls played hard and played a physical game.

“The difference tonight was free throws, when you look at our stats. We were pretty balanced with rebounds. Both us and Bassett were really close on that. Shooting percentage was really close. Neither team was really success from behind the arc tonight. The biggest difference was the number of free throws made and the number of fouls. That really hurt us tonight.”

Kasey Holcomb and Daisy Ball helped the Cougars jump out to a quick 5-2 lead in the first quarter with a three-pointer and lay up respectively. By the end of the quarter though, Bassett had worked their way into the lead and built a five-point cushion, 12-7.

Ball would help with the Cougars offensive effort in the second quarter, and help will her team back into the game. She used her distinct size advantage against a much smaller Bengal squad, and scored seven points in the first half.

Despite Ball’s presence in the paint, Bassett would continue to exploit the Pulaski zone defense by spreading the floor. That allowed many baskets down the right side of the lane. Julia Scales scored six points in the quarter that way, as the Bengals took a 23-16 halftime lead.

What had been a fairly clean first half as far as fouls go for both teams would change in a hurry. Pulaski would pick up seven fouls after just the first 4:14 in the second half. Despite having no fouls in the first, three of those fouls were on Ball, as she sat on the bench with foul trouble.

With her not in the game, Bassett continued to work the paint and stretched their lead all the way up to 32-20. Ball would return in a big way later in the quarter for the Cougars. She scored six points before the end of the quarter and closed that 12-point lead to just seven points, 37-30.

However, Pulaski’s foul trouble would mount in the fourth quarter. With just a few minutes off the clock, Sydney Anderson picked up her fourth foul and Daisy Ball fouled out. Anderson and Raiven Patterson would also foul out with just three minutes left in the game, leaving the Cougars without many of their key offensive weapons.

Without the aid of those three, Kasey Holcomb would attempt to put the team on her shoulders and carry them back into the game. She drove to the basket and was fouled several times, going to the foul line eight times in the final quarter.  She made all eight attempts.

Her efforts would go in vain though, as Pulaski just couldn’t catch back up. Bassett would be fouled 27 times in the game and make 24 of their 36 attempts. Pulaski was fouled 17 times and hit 14-for-21 from the free throw line.

The Cougars end the season with an 11-15 record and two straight playoff appearances. Grubb reflected on his team’s season after the game.

“As far as the season goes, it is disappointing ending the season on a note like this, but there were a lot of positives to take away from the season and a lot of positives down the road,” Grubb said.

“I think that this team was forced to handle a lot of adversity from the get-go. We experienced a lot of different injuries from a lot of different players. I think there were very few players who stayed healthy all season long and were available for every single game. We had two girls that were contributors tear their ACLs – one just before the season and one in January. The face of our team kept changing and our style of play kept changing. We had to keep making adjustments to it because our personnel kept changing.

“We did play some really good games, played some tough teams close, and had some success. We had some great team improvements and individual team improvements, when you how these kids have progressed through their high school careers. Brittany Lawson, our lone senior, had a good season, improved in every aspect of her game and was a leader on the court and in practice. Her shooting percentage increased, her rebounds increased, and her overall contribution to the team increased.

“Everyone else has an opportunity to come back and get even better next year. That is exciting that we have so much young talent and we can build on it in the future.”

Daisy Ball finished with a career-high 17 points. She also grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots. Kasey Holcomb scored 13 points, while Raiven Patterson added nine points and six rebounds.