Cougar Boys Squander 15-Point 4th Quarter Lead to Montclair

With a 15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, it looked like the Cougar boys basketball team was ready to end its two-game losing streak and win just its second contest in the last six games. But the visiting Mounties had other ideas about how the game would end.

Late Thursday afternoon at Columbia High School, the Montclair boys rallied, outscoring the locals 25-9 in the final quarter to come away with a miraculous come-from-behind 48-47 win. The Cougars made just four field goals in the fourth and surrendered eight turnovers. Montclair capitalized with 13 points off of Columbia's fourth quarter turnovers.

"Their offense was just a ton of lay-ups, because we were turning the ball over," said Columbia head coach Jerry Hill of the final quarter. "They didn't really have to do anything offensively, because we just turned it over and we couldn't even get into defense."

The Mounties began the final period with a 21-4 run to take their first lead of the game at 44-42, with under two minutes left to play. From there, Montclair was able to hold off the home squad. The Cougars had two shots blocked in the final minute of play and Montclair did not miss a single free throw to come away with the one-point victory.

Columbia was in complete control throughout the game, up until the final eight minutes of play. They had held Montclair to just two lay-ups in the first three quarters and 4-of-20 shooting from beyond the arc. Montclair had managed just three first-quarter points and just five points in the third. But Columbia got sloppy with the ball in the final minutes, and Montclair took advantage with lay-ups. Also, the Cougars made just 2 of 13 shots from the free throw line, while the Mounties sank 13 of 18.

"This hurts a lot. It hurts a lot," Hill said of the loss. "We had a big lead, we were on a two-game losing streak. And all of the sudden we just need to close out the game and we just can't do it. It's just very frustrating to be leading in every game at halftime and not be able to close out the game."

The remarkable thing is that the Mounties did not have a single player score in double figures, while the Cougars had three players in double digits. Austin Little and Femi Agunbiade each scored 12, while Chavis chipped in 11. The Mounties shot just over 31 percent from the floor, were out-rebounded 29-19 and Columbia sank nearly 53 percent of its shots. The big discrepancy in numbers and the reason why Columbia lost was the 12 steals by the Mounties versus 16 turnovers, where the Cougars lost the rock 21 times and stole it eight times. Montclair improved to 4-6 overall.

"I didn't think we were going to lose this game, I never thought that," Hill said. "Even when it got close, I just kept saying, 'OK, we'll be able to handle it.' It's amazing, we're in shock."

At 5-6, there is still a lot of life left in the season for the Columbia boys basketball team, which has been mired in a tough stretch. Since Dec. 29, the boys are 2-3 in games in which they lead at the half. They have had trouble putting together a complete game, which may be a manifestation of not having a go-to, dominant scorer to break them out of scoring slumps.