Cougars look to rebound

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Crowther Memorial Junior High School Cougars Grade 9 girls basketball team put their best foot forward as hosts of the February Frenzy tournament last weekend.
Despite a sixth place finish, the team’s defense improved immensely, but they know there is still a lot of work to be done heading into being zone hosts this weekend.
Head Coach Scott Koller said that the girls knew high calibre teams were coming to this tournament and are hopeful it’s one event that teams want to come to year after year.
However, he feels that there were things to take from it that needed to be improved upon.
“We need to attack the basket more and make better passes (and) we need to play with more intensity and want the ball more,” said Koller.
The girls will host zones on March 4-5 at Crowther Memorial Junior High School.
Grade 9 boys’ coach Matt Laslo said his boys went into the tournament playing hard in all the games and tried to outwork their opponents.
He pinpointed the toughest game they had to play was against Huntington Hills High School of Red Deer, where they were able to hang around and only lost by four points.
“I felt like we were really working hard and playing together as a team,” said Laslo.
“We ended up losing the game by four points, but it was tied until less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. If we wouldn’t have spotted them 15 points in the first quarter, we probably win that game, as we won three of the four quarters.”
Laslo said despite the third place finish, the other two games were closer than he would’ve liked to have seen.
If the team can limit their turnovers, there is a strong possibility that they can compete with any team at zone.
“There are going to be tough teams there, but defense is a great equalizer,” said Laslo. “If we can outwork our opponent and make every possession of the game a battle, I think we stand a pretty good chance.”