Cougars 81 Lightning 62
Dario Viveros has been around the game long enough to realize when he needs to change his tactics.
For the first 20 minutes of the Notre Dame Cougars meeting with the Hunting Hills Lightning in the opening game of the best-of-three Central Alberta 4A high school basketball final series, Viveros was a one-man show.
And it wasn’t working.
The Lighting held a 32-27 lead despite 19 points by Viveros.
The second half he got more of his teammates involved and the Cougars rolled to an 81-62 victory before close to a full house at Hunting Hills Tuesday.
“I give credit to Dario as he recognized it and when he came off the court at the half he said ‘coach I have to move the ball . . . I shot way too much and I didn’t do the things that make us better’. I think we all recognized that, which was important,” said Cougars head coach Stef Labrecque.
The Cougars came out strong in the third quarter and jumped into a 54-44 lead after 30 minutes and continued to roll through the final quarter.
One of the major benefits for the Cougars is that both their star players — Viveros and Jordan Handel — are in Grade 12 and have been through the playoff wars before.
“That is a benefit,” agreed Labrecque. “But we’ve all worked hard to get to this point and this is where we want to shine, just like they want to. This was a battle of wills and they battled hard in that first half.”
Lightning head coach Scott Doan felt his team dictated most of the play in the first half, but let the Cougars control the second.
“They played very good defence the second half and didn’t allow us to do what we wanted to do. We rushed and didn’t have any patience.”
The Lightning also didn’t shoot well in the second half, missing a number of inside shots.
The teams meet again Thursday at Notre Dame and if a third game is necessary it’s Friday, also at Notre Dame.
“Winning this first one, especially in their building was big psychologically for us,” said Labrecque. “Now we can build on this momentum.”
Doan isn’t worried about playing in the Cougars building.
“It’s not like we have a long way to go. We need to make some changes the guys have to be willing to do the things we need to do. The first half we played great defence and took the charges and held them to 27 points. The second half we give up close to 60. We have to play a complete game.”
Viveros finished with 33 points while Handel had 18. Orrin Farries had 17 points and Dallas Hancox 16 for the Lightning.
Lightning 67 Cougars 62 (OT)
The girls game was more dramatic than the boys as the Lightning pulled out a 67-62 overtime victory in the first game of the best-of-three playoff.
The Cougars led by as much as 14 points before the Lightning took a 54-52 lead in the final seconds. However, Notre Dame’s veteran guard Molly Li hit a jumper with 0.9 seconds remaining to force the five-minute extra period.
However, the Cougars, who had three players foul out and lost Amanda Orozco with an ankle injury, ran out of gas while the Lightning’s top two players — Teighan Ponto and Brittani Blake — took control.
“The first half wasn’t our best, but the second half, and especially in the fourth quarter our playoff experience showed,” said Lightning head coach Jill De Jonge. “We had two tight games last year and my returnees fought throw this and slowed the game down when they needed to and picked it up when they needed to.”
Ponto finished with 22 points and Blake 21.
“They both had five or six points at the half, but they stepped up like we needed them to,” said De Jonge.
Cougars coach John Groenen, who is handling the team with Erika Pottage off with her new baby, said they got themselves into foul trouble, which was a big part of the story.
“We were a little too aggressive early and got into foul trouble,” he said. “But full credit to Hunting, they made their fouls, then we lost some (players) at the end. But overall we can’t be disappointed with our effort. Now they have to come to our place and hopefully we’re back here Friday.”
Li led the Cougars with 23 points and Maddi Quinn had 18 before fouling out in the fourth quarter.,
The teams play Thursday at 6 p.m. at Notre Dame.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com