Thus far, Cougars outclass 1A peers
Izard County got the kind of postseason challenge Coach Kyle McCandlis was looking for last week, but much like they have all season, the Cougars didn’t flinch.
With the Class 1A state tournament set to begin today at Lake Hamilton High School, there’s no reason for the defending champions to start shuddering now.
“These guys do an unbelievable job of staying loose and staying focused,” said McCandlis, whose team opens up defense of their crown at 8:30 p.m. against Bradford. “They want to be the best, and they know that everybody is going to come at them. They’re the hunted, but I told them that they’ve got to remember being the hunters at one point.
“They’ve got to stay hungry and focused so that no one knocks them off.”
The Cougars (36-5) haven’t been knocked off in over two months. The last time Izard County lost a game was when Harvard-Westlake took a 77-51 decision on New Year’s Eve at the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Since then, the Cougars have run roughshod over everyone they’ve faced.
All but one of the team’s victories during its 17-game winning streak have come by at least 27 points, with the exception resulting in a 17-point victory over Sloan-Hendrix. The Cougars also have won 59 games in a row over Class 1A teams. Guy-Perkins was the last 1A school to hand Izard County a loss, which happened in the 2018 state title game.
The Cougars, who have gone unbeaten in their conference for six consecutive seasons, did get pushed for a change Saturday night against Mammoth Spring in the 1A-2 Regional final. Izard County found itself tied after the first quarter and held just a 27-18 lead at halftime, a small cushion by the Cougars’ standards.
McCandlis said that challenge was good for his team.
“It was great because it was one of those things where we knew them and they knew us,” he said. “I bet these boys have been playing basketball and baseball against those guys forever. Even though they’ve switched conferences, we’re still close to them. We’d played them and beat them earlier in the season, and our kids came in with a little different mentality, kind of came in a little bit relaxed this time.
“And [Mammoth Spring] punched them in the mouth. My guys didn’t like it, and in the second half, they were ready to go swinging. It woke us up a little bit.”
Behind the play of Justus Cooper, Coby Everett and Chase Orf, the Cougars responded by outscoring the Bears 36-16 in the second half to roll 63-34.
McCandlis has told his players they’ve got to play dual roles over the course of the season, and instead of winching at that thought, they’ve embraced it.
“To an extent, it’s hard to keep the same focus night in and night out,” he said. “We talk about wearing different hats … being the hero at times and then being the villain. I feel like when we step out of the smaller classifications, we are the hero and everybody may be like, ‘Hey, we want these guys to win.’
“But then when we step back into reality in our own class, it’s like, ‘Hey, this is who we’ve got to take out.’ They’ve got to keep running and stay ahead of the game because there are people chasing the standards they’ve set. I told them we’ll wear whatever hat we need to wear in order to do what we need to do to perform.”