On Wednesday evening, the 7th grade North Cougars hosted one of their crosstown rivals… the CMS West Wranglers. To start the action, C team took the court first. Despite a great effort to run the offense, the Cougars just couldn’t get their shots to drop and found themselves trailing at halftime. However, the momentum turned quickly in the second half as the North pressure got to the Wranglers and the Cougars were able to convert many turnovers into points to leap into the lead. Scoring contributions came from many players, including: Pedro Avila, Jack Shannon, Ryan Roels, Jax Kirchmer, Sebastian Cano, and Archer Warren. And in the end, North’s C team took the 29-22 win.

As the B team followed next, they had high hopes to do the same. However, somebody had secretly put a lid back on the Cougar’s basket between games, and West was able to jump out to a quick lead. Despite an exciting performance from Rajiv Anandkumar with 11 points, the boys from North just couldn’t fight all the way back and ended up on the wrong side of the 34-25 score.

But despite the excitement of the first two games, the thriller of the night came down to the A game. Both teams proved to be evenly matched as they battled throughout the first half and into the second. The North Cougars were riding the momentum provided by their strong backcourt tandem of Charlie Sauer (game high 24 points) and Zane Nimalarantne (16 points) and had a chance to win the game at the buzzer. But when that shot didn’t fall, the game’s fate rested upon the OVERTIME session. And despite the tremendous effort from the entire Cougar A team, the Wranglers were able to squeak out the victory with a final score of 49-46 to end the night.


#GoCougars
UP NEXT: At Carroll MS on Monday, 1/24

Overall on the season:
A team: 4-6
B team: 3-7
C team: 2-5