Cougars drop two in one week
The past week was a tough one for the Centre Cougars as they added two more to the loss column.
In a close game at home Jan. 3, they suffered a disappointing three-point loss to Elyria Christian, 58-55.
The Cougars led 18-12 at the end of the first quarter, and remained in the lead, 32-28, at halftime, after Elyria had tied the game several times.
At the end of the third quarter, Elyria led by one point. The game was tied, 53-53, with two minutes remaining, and Elyria edged ahead to win.
The Cougars outscored Elyria but were cold at the free-throw line, completing 1-of-7 compared to 7-of-12 by Elyria. That difference provided enough of a margin to give Elyria the win.
Seth Jirak was the only Cougar to score in double digits, with 11 points.
Tad Remy provided three assists. Remy, Jirak, and Alfonse Klenda had six rebounds each. Thieen Antoszyk stole the ball three times and took two charges.
The junior varsity defeated Elyria, 64-54. They scored 16 points in each of the four quarters to outscore Elyria except in the fourth quarter, when they were outscored 20-16.
Thomas Terreault scored 18 points, followed by Ben Krause with 14 and James Weber and Nathan Barney, nine each.
The Friday night game at Sunrise Christian Academy, Wichita, proved to be a catastrophe for the Cougars. They were defeated, 71-32.
Their shooting was cold from the beginning. They were outscored 8-19, 9-15, 9-10, and 6-27 in four consecutive quarters.
Centre completed nine field goals and one three-pointer compared to 27 and five by Sunrise. The Cougars excelled at the free-throw line, completing 11-of-15 compared to 2-of-4 by Sunrise.
Most of Sunrise's points were scored by two players, Goddard with 28 and Krause with 15.
Klenda led Centre's scoring with 11 points and also led at the boards with nine rebounds. Dustin Burnett added three assists.
The junior varsity was defeated soundly, 62-27. They were outplayed 21-4 in the first quarter, and things went downhill from there.
James Weber scored 12 points, ahead of Zach Slayden with seven.
With the two losses suffered last week, the Cougars have yet to win a regular season game. Their record stands at 1-5.
Junior varsity
The Centre Cougars' junior varsity defeated White City, 49-34, and lost to Solomon, 59-61, at the junior varsity tournament held Saturday at Hope.
Against White City, Ben Krause led scoring with 13 points, followed by James Weber with 11 points, and Thomas Terreault with 10.
Against Solomon, the Cougars had an eight-point lead at halftime, 36-28. However, a 21-9 point scoring advantage for Solomon in the third quarter put them behind by four points.
A 14-12 advantage for Centre in the fourth quarter could not make up for the deficit.
A total of nine three-point field goals were made by the Cougars. Bryant Brunner, with a total of 13 points, made three; Zach Slayden, with 12 points, made three; and Terreault, with 11 points, made one. Krause scored nine points, also including a three-point shot.
