Creek defeats West Ouachita

Entering 2025 with a 7-3 record after a 76-70 win over West Ouachita on Monday, sweeping the season series, the Cedar Creek Cougars hope their New Year’s resolution to share the basketball stays the norm after another upset win over the 4A Chiefs.

Tied at 67-67 with 3:00 left, both teams needed to break away for a run in crunch time and it turned out to be the visitors with the edge as the Cougars held the Chiefs to a single three-pointer over the final 3:06 of the game while Creek pulled ahead on a 9-0 run to ice the much-needed road win away to bounce back after losing by 30 to Quitman just before Christmas break.

Creek’s defense and trust in one another offensively carried the Cougars to the finish line as the as big points from Cannon Robbins and Jack Bell, along with two timely assists from Jake Terry, secured the road win.

Robbins led the game with 29 points, including 9 in the fourth, while Terry scored 19 points and dished out two clutch assists to seal the win late. Bell added 12 points while Luke Waldron scored 8 points.

The win came thanks to late shots and forceful defense but perhaps the biggest change from the blowout to Quitman and Monday’s win was the willingness on the Cougars’ part to share the ball on offense, look up court for open teammates and hold the ball for better shot selection when it was needed.

“That was our focus the last three days because of the way we played against Quitman it was nothing like that, so three days of practice preparing for this that’s what we worked on. We worked on sharing the ball,” Creek head coach Lance Waldron said. “And we have some really good players on our team, but they can’t do it alone. You gotta have everybody involved. I think we responded tonight [Monday] with that.”

The response took some time to show up after West Ouachita opened the game leading 8-3 before eventually building a 21-12 lead in the first quarter as Creek struggled with unforced turnovers and rushed offense.

But the Cougars didn’t panic and chipped away at the West Ouachita lead with timely shots by Terry to get the deficit to 23-18 entering the second quarter. Creek found its first lead of the game on back-to-back threes from Terry, but the Chiefs punched back with outside shots of their own to give the home team a 33-31 lead with 2:05 left in the half. But two Jack Bell free throws and a steal by Cameron Temple tossed up court to Robbins for a layup gave Creek a 35-33 lead at the break.

The third quarter was back and forth, with Creek building a six-point lead with just over 3:20 left in the frame before entering the fourth quarter up 56-52.

He may not have led Creek in scoring (8 total points), but junior guard Cameron Temple’s defense helped Creek settle in as the game went on and created transition steals, turnovers, and stops for the Cougars throughout the night. Temple finished with 4 steals and forced the Chiefs into multiple turnovers as they couldn’t get by him in full-court press situations or when they received the ball off a screen.

Waldron offered high praise for his defensive-minded guard after the win.

“That’s such a good story,” Waldron said. “Cam went through some struggles last year and it was his defense. I challenged him with his defense. Cam is a competitor. He wants to be on the floor. Defensively, he was not there. And it’s a testament to him. He put in the work, he’s worked his butt off and now he’s one of our best defenders.”

Cedar Creek returns to action on Thursday on the road at Castor.