BOYS BASKETBALL: Cougars Shot Down by Wildcats

Arundel guard David Nicholson buried a long 3 to open the scoring in Tuesday night's playoff game, and the Wildcats never looked back in a dominating win against .

The No. 9 Cougars fell to No. 1 Arundel 86-63 in Gambrills in the second round of the Class 4A east region playoffs.

Nicholson hit four long 3s in the game’s opening minutes and the Wildcats quickly jumped out to a 23-3 lead Chesapeake was never able to touch.

“David Nicholson is a good shooter,” Chesapeake head coach Marlon Bailey said. “He has been shooting since he was a freshman. I have seen him hit a buzzer-beater against —the kid can flat out shoot. When we don’t put a hand in his face, we’re not going to knock it down.”

Chesapeake struggled to defend Nicholson, who finished with a game-high 27 points despite sitting for much of the second half.

The Cougars were without center Jacob McKenzie due to an illness, and it showed on the boards. The Cougars struggled to grab rebounds and gave up numerous second-chance points to the Wildcats.

“Jake [McKenzie] didn’t come to school today—he was sick. We knew we were short on big [men] and we only have four to begin with,” Bailey said. “Without big men in the regional quarterfinals it is hit-or-miss and today we missed.”

Despite its struggles getting the ball inside on offense, Chesapeake shot well from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. The Cougars went 12-for-15 from the stripe in the final eight minutes, but could not close the gap.

 against  to reach Tuesday's game. Despite the loss, Bailey said he was proud of his team.

“Honestly, today was a day I didn’t want to come to an end,” Bailey said. “It seems like it was just November 15th yesterday. But I love my team and it is just hard right now.”