Both Cooper basketball teams earned the legs up in 33rd District seed play in completely different fashion.
The Cooper boys had to make two defensive stands in the final minute to pull off a one-point win over Conner after the Cooper girls blew out Conner in the second half. Here’s how it happened:
BOYS
Cooper 51, Conner 50
Austin Alexander made a three-point play in the paint with 5:14 remaining to put the Jaguars up 51-45.
Cooper still held on for the win despite not scoring the rest of the game relying on its pressure man defense. The Jaguars milked the clock working the ball around the perimeter and forced Conner to come out and defend out of their zone.
Conner’s Finn Louden made a 3-pointer with five minutes left to make it 51-48, a stalemate followed. Nearly four minutes later, Chase Huff laid one in to make the final score with 53.9 seconds left.
“You have to take your hat’s off to Conner. They play hard,” Cooper head coach Tim Sullivan said. “It’s 33rd District basketball. There’s not an easy night. That’s what we just talked about in the locker room. As ugly as it was, I just told them if you Google how not to win the basketball game, our game on our side would show up all over Google because we tried to do everything we could. But when it boiled down to it, our kids just kept competing and we found a way. That says a lot about our kids’ character.”
The Cougars had two chances to take the lead in the final 30 seconds. The first chance resulted in a turnover, Isaac Brown with a steal but unable to make his free throw attempts with 22 seconds left. After Cooper used a foul to give, Landon Warner then put up a final shot with Yamil Rondon guarding him, but it did not go down allowing the Jaguars to escape with the win.
“Coming out of the timeout, we told our kids we have a foul to give. Yamil struggled, but he still had the understanding that we wanted to foul so when the ball got down there, we were able to foul. We knew they were out of timeouts,” Sullivan said. “It got our defense set. Late in the game, we talked about switching everything and we did that on the handoff. Yamil stayed with (Warner) and he got it off. It’s a point where you can’t foul so you have to do everything to fight and that’s what our kids did.”
Isaiah Johnson and Chris Rodriguez combined for nearly two-thirds of the Cooper points with 17 each and Rondon scored nine. Johnson had a lot of success in the low block against the Conner zone, both shooting and finding open teammates with four assists.
“It worked out well,” Johnson said. “We worked the short corner and once that guy pops up, it’s an easy lay-up. We had to be patient. We had to move it around. We’ve been working on sliding in and getting the easy pass.”
Conner had four different players score in double figures. Louden and Huff scored 13 each with Warner and Brady Bushman following with 11 and 10, respectively.
“I thought the last two days of practice one through 16 were the best two days out of the 35-40 practices we’ve had and it carries over into what you do (on game day),” said Matthew Otte, Conner head coach. “Everyone is locked in and hopefully they keep doing that then everything kind of takes care of itself when you start figuring the how hard do I have to play out.”
Both teams are missing key post players. Shaun Pouncy and Andy Johnson are both injured for the Jaguars and Ben Fay will not be able to play this year for Conner after suffering a season-ending injury during football season. Pouncy and Johnson are both expected to return this year for Cooper.
Neither team led by more than five in the first half. The Jaguars led 11-6 with 2:51 left in the first quarter after Rodriguez made two free throws before Conner responded with five straight to tie the game at 14 when Bushman made a three. Cooper took a 16-14 lead after one when Rondon hit a jumper on the right side.
Rodriguez hit a three from the right corner 27 seconds into the second quarter to put Cooper up 19-14 before Loudon hit a three from the left wing to give Conner a 20-19 advantage with 6:40 left in the half. The teams traded baskets back and forth after a Rondon steal and layup gave the Jaguars a 23-20 lead. Conner took a 34-32 halftime lead after a Warner three with 1:06 left in the half.
Cooper went on a 10-0 run to go up 42-36 with 3:37 left in the third quarter. Johnson led the way with four points during the run.
“Maturity is all it is,” Rodriguez said. “You have to know when to go for the ball and when not, especially in tight games like that.”
Conner trimmed the margin to 44-40 to start the fourth.
Cooper (4-2) takes on Legacy Charter (South Carolina) in the Griffin Elite Showcase on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Conner (1-4) takes on Cincinnati (Ohio) Aiken in the Scott Winter Classic on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
JAGUARS 51, COUGARS 50
CONNER — 14-20-6-10 — 50
COOPER — 16-16-12-7 — 51
Scoring
Conner (50) — Huff 13, Louden 13, Warner 11, Bushman 10, Abousaleh 3
Cooper (51) — Johnson 17, Rodriguez 17, Rondon 9, Alexander 5, Blackburn 3
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Conner 8, Cooper 5
Free Throws: Conner 3/3, Cooper 4/8
Records: Conner 1-4, Cooper 4-2
GIRLS
Cooper 58, Conner 28
Up 11-10 after one, Cooper scored nine straight to go up 20-10 then never looked back. The Jaguars built a 35-21 halftime lead then outscored the Cougars, 23-7 in the second half to pull away.
Cooper’s hard-nosed man defense recorded 14 steals off 24 Conner turnovers leading to 11 assists. Zene Thompson led Cooper with three steals and Liz Freihofer had four assists. Four Jaguars had two steals each with Thompson and Bella Deere recording two assists each.
Cooper put up 18 more shots and did not allow any assists in the game. Maleah Alexander spent most of the game guarding Conner point guard Anna Hamilton and helped hold Hamilton to a team-high nine points after Hamilton came into the game averaging 20.2 points per game. Alexander and Hamilton play on the same Kentucky Fusion club team in the offseason.
“We’ve been playing with and against Anna since middle schools so obviously, I kind of have the advantage because I know how she plays and how she is,” Alexander said of Hamilton. “But obviously, she’s an incredible player so I’m not going to stop her every single time. But I’m trying to take away her drives and some of her shooting. Coach (Justin) Holthaus puts in double teams and makes sure we’re getting over top of screens. When we execute that well, that’s how we do so well defensively.”
On the other side of the floor, Conner could not stop Cooper senior Logan Palmer. Palmer made three 3-pointers and a number of tough shots in the paint on her way to 20 points and Haylee Noel followed with 11 as 11 different Jaguars scored. The reserves played a good bit of the fourth quarter.
“We’re not always the biggest on the court,” Palmer said. “But we do get mismatches more often than we don’t, so capitalizing on those are game changers for us. We know that we need each other. We know that it’s not a winnable game without every single person. If we see this person on, we have more trust in them so it’s like, ‘Oh. I’m going to give them the ball more.”
Palmer opened the game with a three from the right corner against Conner’s 2-3 matchup zone. At the other end, Alexis Craddock made one to match it and Holthaus called a timeout.
“With anybody, once you see the ball go through that hole, you get a bit more confidence,” Holthaus said. “That’s been one thing about Logan all year long. Even when she’s not shooting well, she’s still finding ways to score whether it’s driving to the rim or making jump shots.”
Palmer had a three-point play and Alexander hit a three to put Cooper up 9-3. Conner scored seven straight to take its lone lead of the game at 10-9 on an Aubree Depenbrock three with 2:16 left in the first quarter. Addyson Brissey had an offensive putback to give Cooper the lead for good to end the first quarter.
“Cooper doesn’t really have any weaknesses,” Conner head coach Michelle Gambrel said. “They have five kids out there that can defend, that can score. We have to work on ourselves. We have to figure out our offense. We have a lot of kids out there that don’t have varsity experience so we’re trying to figure out how to work as a team. They work hard in practice and they want it so I think we’re going to be fine.”
Cooper (4-3) ended a three-game losing streak and faces Russell at home on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Conner (2-4) hosts South Oldham on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
JAGUARS 58, COUGARS 28
CONNER — 10-11-2-5 — 28
COOPER — 11-24-13-10 — 58
Scoring
Conner (28) — Hamilton 9, Kerns 4, Brown 4, Depenbrock 3, Craddock 3, Burcham 2, Gutzwiller 2, Everett 1
Cooper (58) — Palmer 20, Noel 11, Brissey 5, Alexander 5, Atwater 4, Deere 3, Knox 2, Scott 2, Thompson 2, Freihofer 2, Smith 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Conner 3, Cooper 5
Free Throws: Conner 7/10, Cooper 11/15
Records: Conner 2-4, Cooper 4-3
