1A Nisqually Hoops: LCA and Cascade Christian split double-header

2/8/2023

Girls: Life Christian Academy 41, Cascade Christian24

Boys: Cascade Christian 52, Life Christian Academy 51

(Tacoma, WA)

On Senior Night for the Life Christian Academy Eagles on Tuesday the Eagles split a double-header with the Cascade Christian Cougars in two competitive games in Tacoma.

First in the girl’s game, LCA raced to an early 11-6 lead after the first quarter and the Eagles added to their lead by outscoring the Cougars 12-8 in the 2nd quarter to lead 23-14 at halftime.

Both teams struggled offensively in the 3rd quarter and the Cougars took advantage as Cascade Christian outscored LCA 6-2 in the quarter to cut the deficit to 25-20 entering the final quarter.

LCA came out firing in the 4th quarter as the Eagles outscored the Cougars 16-4 in the final period to pull away 41-24.

Kailee Pearson led the Cougars with eight points in the loss and Marissa Linkem and Jennica Walling each had six points for Cascade Christian.

Sophie Janho catches a pass for Cascade Christian

The backcourt of Josie Ryder and Betsy Lovrak led the Eagles with 11 and nine points for LCA and forward Grace Mattson added ten points for the Eagles.

The win improves LCA’s overall record to 12-4 and 12-3 in 1A Nisqually League play and will travel to Vashon Island on Thursday for the regular season finale. The Eagles have already clinched the #3 seed for the district tournament that begins on Saturday and will have a home game against a team that will be announced on Friday.

The loss for Cascade Christian drops the Cougars 7-9 in League play and 8-12 overall and will have to wait until Friday for their matchup on Saturday. The Cougars are in a battle for the 4th seed in districts with East Jefferson and Vashon Island and would have helped their chances with a win over LCA, but with the loss their post-season rests upon final results on Thursday.

Boys

In the boy’s game, Cascade Christian dominated most of the first three quarters against Life Christian, and the Cougars held off a big comeback attempt for the Eagles and Cascade Christian held on for one point victory 52-51.

The Cougars took control of the game early by starting the game on a 12-0 run. LCA answered by going on a mini 7-3 spurt themselves to cut the Cougars lead to 15-7 after one quarter. The 2nd quarter was close as Cascade Christian outscored LCA by just two points 13-11 to take a ten-point lead into the 2nd half.

The 3rd quarter was back and forth action as both teams exchanged short scoring runs, but Cascade Christian kept the Eagles at bay with a 39-29 lead entering the 4th quarter.

In the final period, LCA outscored the Cougars by nine points as the closed the gap in the final minutes, as freshman guard Darius Imperial shined for the Eagles, as he knocked a 3-pointer to cut the lead to just 3 points. However, Jacob Janho responded with a 3-pointer for CCH to bring the lead to 6. LCA answered by getting a layup to trim the lead to four. LCA would force a turnover to cut it to two, but two big free throw makes for Carson Frost gave the Cougars a 4-point lead in the final second as Darius Imperial drilled another 3-pointer, this one at the buzzer for LCA but the Eagles could not stop the clock as Cascade Christian held on for the 52-51 win. Imperial led the Eagles in scoring with 18 points off the bench and Sam Batchhelder had 11, Riley Kretzer with Ten. Jacob Janho and Carson Frost each had 11 points for Cascade Christian while Jackson Almond had nine points.

Both of these teams will play each other again on Saturday in the District Tournament as LCA dropped to 9-6 in Nisqually League play while Cascade Christian won their 4th straight game and improved to 8-8 in the Nisqually League.