COLUMBIA - Civic Memorial basketball coach Ross Laux wanted to challenge his players by putting them to the test after their 58-55 loss to Freeburg last night in the Columbia-Freeburg Holiday Tournament.
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“We had a tough walk through, a tough heart-to-heart today,” Laux said.
Laux wanted to reaffirm that his players genuinely cared about one another and secondly that if they could hold off a team like the Columbia Eagles at their gym.
Mission accomplished.
Civic Memorial defeated Columbia 54-48 in the Columbia-Freeburg Holiday Tournament at Columbia High School on Friday evening. With that, they improve to 9-4 and will face Marquette Catholic in the championship game tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m.
“[We’re] so happy we got to play Columbia, another outstanding team and learned that we do care, which makes our job easier to come to every day but I think what they learned in the locker room is how hard it is to win at the varsity level. We learned what we wanted to learn from our team as a coaching staff and our team learned what it takes to grind out a win. What it really takes to be ready.”
“I think we played harder tonight and grinded it out. He was hard on us because we know we’re a lot better than that and really we played to what we’re capable of, and I think it showed tonight,” Caden Clark said.”
JaQuan Adams scored a game-high 21 points, and he was followed by 15 points from Bryce Zupan, and Caden Clark’s 14. The icing on the cake perhaps was the Eagles performance from the free-throw line as a team: 16-for-16. Adam’s, Clark, and Zupan were heavily involved in sealing the deal for Civic Memorial in the last two minutes of the game when they were holding onto the lead.
“That’s three returning key players that have been in that moment before. Three guys that I thought yesterday I doubted a little bit, but today not at all. They stepped up to the line and took care of business,” Laux said. “It showed what we were tonight. I hope it shows what we are looking forward and don’t take a step back.”
The game was mostly back-and-forth with Civic Memorial holding a slim lead throughout. After outscoring Columbia 10-4 in the first quarter, the hosts came back by winning the second quarter and trailed 19-17 going into halftime. Adams scored six points in the third quarter including a couple of running shots through the lane, while Clark scored on two baskets on fast breaks.
Columbia never gave up and was led by Jacob O’Connor’s 14 points, but scored half of them in the final frame. Sam Horner followed with 12 points, while Jordan Holmes and Jon Peterson each tallied ten.
The Eagles will get a rematch with Marquette previously beat them on Nov 28, 58-38. If Civic Memorial had lost then they would’ve played in the 5th place game earlier in the day. However, Laux and the Eagles never thought about the scenarios in the buildup to the game.
“We didn’t talk about it one time. I didn’t even look it up to tell you the truth. It was about us and how we responded and played more than it was winning or losing,” Laux said. “I would have rather of played like we did tonight and lost than played like we did last night and won because it showed that we responded and we do care.”
MARQUETTE HANDLES LEBANON AGAIN
The Explorers got another crack at Lebanon, who was their first opponent of the season in the Metro-East Lutheran Turkey Tip-Off Classic.
They defeated the Greyhounds 68-26 and tonight the result was similar as Marquette outscored Lebanon 24-2 in the first quarter and rode out 70-22 winners.
All but two players made the scoresheet as Sammy Green had a game-high 14 points, including four triples. Davon Berry added 12 with Regan Snider contributing nine.
The 22 points allowed was the fewest the Explorers have allowed since they defeated Sparta 53-17 last season on Jan 20.
