Creek basketball teams ready for NOLA trip

It’s going to be a Cougar sighting in New Orleans this weekend.

Both Cedar Creek basketball teams will take part in a special matchup against Saline inside the Smoothie King Center — home of the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans — today to provide the program a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

The Lady Cougars’ game starts at 12:30 p.m., with the boys’ game starting shortly after. But not only will each team rematch against Saline in the same spot that NBA stars shoot, but the teams have tickets to watch the Pelicans play the Los Angeles Clippers at 7 p.m. tonight as well.

“For me, it’s making memories,” Lady Cougars head coach Katie Hall said. “ That’s what they’ll remember the most. If we lose a game the next day, then just let it be. That’s just part of playing. It’s going to be a big court and I’m hoping we can – kind of like Tuesday – I want to keep some people fresh and keep pressing but I backed off of that. And I recognized the other team was out of shape and I feel like it might be that way Friday with that big court.”

The Lady Cougars (9-8) have won two in a row after taking down Glenbrook 55-19 on Tuesday, using crisp ball movement, effective press defense, and balanced scoring to turn the corner. Opponents have coughed up 20 or more turnovers in the last three games, while the Lady Cougars have 24 assists in their last two wins.

Hall is confident her group is starting to get it and has an opportunity to improve its win streak with a rematch against Saline, whom the Lady Cougars defeated in comeback fashion 55-53 in the season opener on Nov. 14.

Confidence is high with the Creek boys team as well after the team’s fifth straight win in a 78-35 win over Glenbrook on Tuesday – matching the program’s best win streak over the last decade.

But for as inspired as the Cougars (10-4) have been playing as of late, head coach Lance Waldron knows his squad should pick it up a notch in a shot at redemption tonight against Saline after losing 67-61 in the season opener.

Creek had trouble matching the physicality of Saline as the game went on and surrendered 47 second-half points after leading 2520 at the break. Saline’s physical nature proved to be the difference, finishing with 40 free-throw attempts to only 14 for Creek.

Waldron expects a different outcome this time around.

“I feel better. That was our first game of the season and I was really upset after that game because I felt like we put in a lot of hard work to get our defense where it needed to be this year and I didn’t think we performed,” Waldron said. “We get a rematch with them in New Orleans, and we look forward to that. See if we’ve gotten better. We won’t know until we play. But we feel good about where we’re at and we’ve got to shake everything off and get ready to compete with them.”