Junior Cobras hold on to down CMS
FOUNTAIN LAKE — Cutter Morning Star made a late surge, but the junior Eagles’ push fell short in Fountain Lake’s 31-25 win in the Fountain Lake Christmas Classic at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium Wednesday night.
The junior Cobras cruised into the fourth quarter ahead 21-11 and looked like they would close the contest comfortably after Nathan Topf started the period with a nifty layup for a 23-11 edge.
However, the junior Eagles started pressing and forced Fountain Lake into some mistakes. Grant Casey stole an inbounds pass and finished at the basket to bring the deficit to 2925 with 12.8 seconds remaining.
Despite the late push, the junior Cobras saw the game out.
“Well, we didn’t play good,” Fountain Lake coach Jake Dettmering said. “Cutter came out, and they boxed Dillon (Dettmering) and kind of fought back in there. But the frustrating part was I felt like we were all waiting for somebody else to make a play. Fortunately throughout the first half we built a lead and made just enough plays down the stretch to come out with a win. But I thought we got really passive and were afraid to make a play even when we got the ball to the right spots.”
Dillon Dettmering led the junior Cobras with 17 points, and Destyn Fields added nine points for Fountain Lake.
In the first half when things were really working for the junior Cobras, Dettmering knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers, and Fields scored after a dish from Chris Morgan.
The junior Cobras took a 19-8 lead into intermission.
“We made some outside shots,” Dettmering said. “Anytime you put the ball in the hoop that helps, whether it was an ugly possession or not. So we made some shots and built a lead. I think we did a better job staying in front of the ball.”
Hudson Yancy led the junior Eagles with 14 points, and Daughtry Hackelton scored five points.
“They are all heart,” Cutter Morning Star head coach Sean Kelloms said. “They never quit; they played until the very end. I was very impressed with how well they came back at the end. We came down early, couldn’t make a shot and then everything started going our way in the
second half.”
Kelloms emphasized the role of his bench players on the night.
“My bench players came in and played big tonight,” he said. “They always come in and give everything they have. Brody Speers was off the bench and gave it everything he had and did everything he was supposed to do. He’s probably my player of the game for tonight.”
Kelloms said his team lost to Fountain Lake by 15 points earlier in the season and noted just how much his team is improving.
“That was the best our press has looked all year,” Kelloms said. “We’ve worked and worked and worked on our 12 press. It came out tonight. We did an awesome job with it. We got some easy looks at the rim out of it and we shut down their kid that had most of their points in the first half so it was a plus on both sides.”