Coosa boys use excellent offense to charge by Horseshoe Bend

Using an overhauled roster from last season, Central Coosa took to the road and looked to be fairly comfortable facing a largely veteran Horseshoe Bend squad. 

“Last night was so-so for us,” said Central Coosa head coach Richard Bell. “We lost three seniors last year. We were just trying out some different things last night. We wanted to see what stuck for us last night.”

MJ Culpepper sank a three for Coosa to get the Cougars on the board, starting a 19-2 run for the visiting team.  Braxton Wilson of Horseshoe Bend ended the bleeding with a layup make, getting the score to 20-4. 

At the buzzer in the first quarter, Nehemiah Millner hit a pretty floater that had the game at 25-6 in favor of the visitors. 

Riding that way of excitement, Demarkus Sandlin fouled Wilson in the short court to start the second quarter, but took the ball to the hoop anyway for a ferocious dunk. The star Sandlin received a technical foul for his after the whistle dunk, and ended up fouling out in the fourth quarter. He ended his night with six total.

At the half, Coosa was up by 15. With a 41-26 lead, the Cougars looked nothing like a team with a freshman point guard and a largely inexperienced roster. Culpepper had 10 at the break, along with Elijah Richardson. 

For the home squad, it was Klark James being his usual self and leading the charge. James had 10 at the half, all earned from the free throw stripe, some of that scoring coming by way of Sandlin’s tech. Wilson added eight and Jacob Turner followed with four. 

Two minutes into the third quarter, it looked like Horseshoe Bend was climbing out of its halftime hole. The Generals had the score within 11, down 43-32. 

But just as fast as they bridged the gap, Coosa was able to make it even wider, rattling off seven straight to increase their lead back up to 17. 

The second half scoring from Coosa came from all over, a sign of good things to come from the Cougars. 

Cory Thompson added 10 in the second half, getting him to 12 on the game. Antoneo Grant added six and Culpepper had eight. Horseshoe Bend was able to make runs at the scoring margin, but never was able to fully get the game in hand. 

“I thought our defense was good for the most part last night,” Bell said. “Our offense is a work in progress. I knew it would be like this, with new guys.”

James added another 10 in the second half for his squad, giving him a game-high 20. Wilson had 14 by the game’s final whistle and Turner added a quiet 10 points in the second half. 

As for what he saw from his team in last night’s game, it is all out the door by Friday as Coosa has a quick turnaround with a game Friday night against Dadeville.

“Whatever worked on Thursday, we will keep,” Bell said. “Whatever didn’t, we are getting rid of it. Horseshoe Bend gave us a lot to look at.”

The Generals played a lot of zone defense on the night, which Bell said gave his young point guards some trouble. 

“With defenses changing on us, I knew that would be a problem for us early,” Bell said. “That recognition has not kicked in just yet.”

The one-two punch of Horseshoe Bend and Dadeville back-to-back is actually going to be a good thing, according to Bell. Dadeville will provide Coosa to look at things Horseshoe Bend did not give them and vice versa. By the end of the weekend, Bell thinks he will know exactly where his team is and what they need to improve on. 

“Dadeville plays mostly man, so we will find what our guys can really do,” Bell said. “They start five seniors. I start a freshman and four juniors. It will be a good test. We will take these games and go from there.”