COTTAGE GROVE – Early in the third quarter of Friday’s boys basketball game between No. 24 Cottage Grove and No. 3 Marist Catholic, Spartans junior guard Brodey Drennan went for a reverse layup. Lions junior Trevor Cooper attempted to block the shot, but Drennan made the shot.
The much bigger loss came from Cooper landing awkwardly and immediately grabbing his ankle. He did not return to the game.
Cooper’s importance to the Lions is hard to overstate, as few teams rely on their star as much as the Lions do. He is the team’s leading scorer by a wide margin, which is especially crucial for a team that has struggled offensively this season. In Friday’s 48-41 loss, Cooper scored 15 of the Lions’ 17 first-quarter points to give his team an 8-point lead. The junior forward was using his physicality and athleticism to get himself into good positions near the rim to finish those opportunities.
An upset certainly seemed possible after the first quarter, and the Lions held a 26-24 lead at halftime. In the wake of Cooper’s injury, the Lions half-court offense was stagnant; among the lackluster possessions were 10-second backcourt and shot clock violations. Facing a Spartans offense that has allowed the second-fewest points in Class 4A did not make the task any easier.
Most of the Lions points after Cooper’s injury came from the fast break. Point guard Tai Lam used his speed to create chances for himself and others. After he got a steal and layup to finish the third quarter, the Lions home crowd was back in the game. Understandably, they had been subdued after Cooper’s injury. The spectators had a major influence on the first half, especially in the first quarter when Cooper was rolling.
Fourth-quarter drought
A 3:54 scoring drought to begin the fourth quarter, however, allowed the Spartans to increase the lead to 8 points.
After ending the drought, Lions senior guard Cade May grabbed a long rebound with less than four minutes left. He looked to have an easy layup when the Spartans had no one back on defense. Spartans star sophomore Gabe Dietmeyer chased down May like a hawk hunting its prey for a block off the backboard. A defensive miscommunication by the Lions on the ensuing possession allowed the Spartans to get an easy layup. The 4-point swing took what would have been a 44-40 game to 46-38 Spartans, and the Lions sputtering offense was unable to trim the deficit any further.
That defensive miscommunication was one of the few mistakes the Lions made on that end of the floor. The Lions held the Spartans to only 33.9% from the field. Teams almost never win when shooting that poorly.
“We were giving them fits early,” coach Seth Hutchison said. “I think if we did a better job of rebounding, we would have had a much better defensive output.”
The Lions did struggle with defensive rebounds. The Spartans had 18 offensive rebounds, compared to the Lions’ 22 on defense. That means that every time the Spartans shot the ball, the rebound had a near 50-50 chance of being snagged by either team. Without Cooper, the Lions are a small team, but they also were not boxing out, instead choosing to jump and hope that they were more athletic and in the right position for the rebound to fall to them.
“It’s just discipline and focus on that end,” Hutchison said. “We’re just still trying to build that habit of ‘shot goes up, anticipate a miss, and go and box out and rebound.’”
However, the Lions did an excellent job of clamping down after allowing offensive rebounds. Typically, a second possession is more efficient for the offense because the defense is tired and out of position. The Spartans scored only seven second-chance points off of 18 offensive rebounds, which is a tribute to the Lions effort and focus. Now, they just need to apply those same principles to rebounding.
Tuesday morning Hutchison said Cooper’s injury was a “bad sprain. He’s out.” “It’s hard to replace 17 (points) and eight (rebounds) a game,” Hutchison had said after the game. “He’s a special player. And as you can see early in that game, he’s hard to stop. But we’re just going to do it as a team.”
The Lions’ first chance to prove their ability to overcome adversity comes Tuesday, Jan. 27 against No. 9 Marshfield.
Both teams are 2-2 through four games of Sky Em League play.
