Cougars girls basketball trying to find continuity after flu hits team hard

The loss of players has started to hit Cascade Christian High girls basketball team, and Friday’s 42-36 home loss to Seattle Christian has the girls team asking one question.

Can we get a clean bill of health to help us close the season?

The team hasn’t been able to utilize its depth properly, said Cascade Christian coach Bryan Peterson.

“When we get one player back from an injury, we have been dealing with something else like we are with the flu this week. We were hit hard,” Peterson said. “It puts more pressure on the defense when you’re not scoring on the offensive end.”

The Cougars have two games at home this week, one against 4A NSPL opponent Federal Way (8-8) on Wednesday (Jan. 25) and a league game against Charles Wright (5-9, 0-4) on Friday (Jan. 27). Both games can help Cascade Christian (4-9, 2-2) find some continuity with senior guard Hailey Brandner back in the fold.

“My whole team was sick (tonight),” Shelaine Lorenz said after Friday’s loss. “With my team not feeling as great — I wasn’t dealing with the flu — I just to put in the extra work for my team.”

In the early game of a doubleheader with the girls and boys basketball teams on Friday, Cascade Christian had a shot at the win until freshman Olivia Clark (17 points) caught fire to close out the win for Seattle Christian.

“(Clark’s) a really fine player. We scouted her, and started to prove she can get some penetration and then hit step-back threes,” Peterson said.

With 2 minutes, 19 seconds left in the third quarter, Lorenz’s work on defense and on the boards had help give Cascade Christian a 21-19 lead.

But with the strain of players being sick and not fully healed, the Cougars started to wain as Seattle Christian’s guards ran by the tiring Cascade Christian players.

The combo of Clark and Serianna Anderson (12 points) put the Warriors in front, 24-23, a minute later, a lead that Seattle Christian never relinquished.

“We work hard as a team already. It comes to knowing that we’re good and that we play like we’re good,” Lorenz said.

Lorenz tried to keep Cascade Christian in the game, pulling down a game-high 17 rebounds (seven offensive) while completing a double-double with 13 points.

“After the first few minutes of the game, I told the team that rebounds were to be had,” Peterson said.

Rebounds were up for grabs, and Lorenz seemingly bagged all of them.

“My philosophy going into games is get that rebound,” Lorenz said.

Now, as the Cougars enter the week with only four league games left on their schedule — the Federal Way game is a nonleague game — Cascade Christian will need to find some continuity to close out the season and grab one of the final playoff spots (No. 3 or 4 seed) out of the league.

“They did a really nice job on Allison (Downs),” said Peterson of Downs, who finished the game with two points, a season low for the Cougars’ leading scorer.

Whether it’s pushing an up-tempo pace or battling it out in a slugfest with their remaining opponents, it all comes down to one simple solution as the Cougars close out the season: Get healthy to help find some continuity.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 10:19 AM with the headline "Cougars girls basketball trying to find continuity after flu hits team hard."