Cougars split with Burlington School
Michael Lindsay | Enterprise Sports Writer Dec 15, 2022 Updated 6 hrs ago
HIGH POINT — High Point Christian put a late scare into The Burlington School. But it wasn’t quite enough to pull itself from a big hole.
The Cougars trailed by 27 in the second half before clawing within five with two minutes to go. But the Spartans regained enough control to beat HPCA 67-54 in a meeting of NCISAA boys basketball powers Thursday at HPCA.
In the girls game, HPCA — with unrelenting defense leading to easy offense — steamrolled The Burlington School 71-23.
“We played well in spurts,” Cougars boys coach Joseph Cooper said. “We came out flat somehow. We really wanted to be physical — we knew they’d be physical. We wanted to match that early on, and it took four or five minutes to understand the physicality of the game. We figured it out and played them pretty even the rest of the game.”
Elijah Cathcart scored 17 points, hitting four 3-pointers, to lead HPCA (4-6), which reached last year’s NCISAA 3A final. Adam Grier added 10 points, while Taft Johnson and Benny Limbacher each had seven points.
The Spartans — the NCISAA 2A champions the last two years after reaching the 1A finals in 2020 — scored the first 11 points of the game, carried a 31-18 lead into halftime and extended their lead to 27 with 1:25 left in the third.
The Cougars, trailing by 22 early in the fourth, went on a 20-4 run in the final quarter — scoring on eight of nine possessions — to pull within five on a 3 by Johnson with 2:02 left to play. A pair of technical fouls on TBS for hanging on the rim help HPCA gain momentum.
“We kind of took it to them instead of being back on our heels,” Cooper said. “We were the aggressor finally. And when you’re playing a team of that quality, you can’t sit back and let them push you around. You have to take it to them.”
But the Spartans (11-3) — coached by George Marshall, who led Henderson Collegiate to an NCHSAA 1A finals appearance against Bishop McGuinness in 2019 and a co-championship in 2020 — scored on their final five possessions to stave off the Cougars. Zion Walker finished with 13 points to lead TBS.
Michael Lindsay | Enterprise Sports Writer Dec 15, 2022 Updated 6 hrs ago
HIGH POINT — High Point Christian put a late scare into The Burlington School. But it wasn’t quite enough to pull itself from a big hole.
The Cougars trailed by 27 in the second half before clawing within five with two minutes to go. But the Spartans regained enough control to beat HPCA 67-54 in a meeting of NCISAA boys basketball powers Thursday at HPCA.
In the girls game, HPCA — with unrelenting defense leading to easy offense — steamrolled The Burlington School 71-23.
“We played well in spurts,” Cougars boys coach Joseph Cooper said. “We came out flat somehow. We really wanted to be physical — we knew they’d be physical. We wanted to match that early on, and it took four or five minutes to understand the physicality of the game. We figured it out and played them pretty even the rest of the game.”
Elijah Cathcart scored 17 points, hitting four 3-pointers, to lead HPCA (4-6), which reached last year’s NCISAA 3A final. Adam Grier added 10 points, while Taft Johnson and Benny Limbacher each had seven points.
The Spartans — the NCISAA 2A champions the last two years after reaching the 1A finals in 2020 — scored the first 11 points of the game, carried a 31-18 lead into halftime and extended their lead to 27 with 1:25 left in the third.
The Cougars, trailing by 22 early in the fourth, went on a 20-4 run in the final quarter — scoring on eight of nine possessions — to pull within five on a 3 by Johnson with 2:02 left to play. A pair of technical fouls on TBS for hanging on the rim help HPCA gain momentum.
“We kind of took it to them instead of being back on our heels,” Cooper said. “We were the aggressor finally. And when you’re playing a team of that quality, you can’t sit back and let them push you around. You have to take it to them.”
But the Spartans (11-3) — coached by George Marshall, who led Henderson Collegiate to an NCHSAA 1A finals appearance against Bishop McGuinness in 2019 and a co-championship in 2020 — scored on their final five possessions to stave off the Cougars. Zion Walker finished with 13 points to lead TBS.