Cougars Get Mauled by Voracious Lake Wales Team; 64-38.

If Durant has the best cheering section in Hillsborough County, Lake Wales has the best cheering section in Polk County. They brought half of Polk County and overpowered the usually uncontested Durant cheering section.

The Lake Wales basketball team overpowered the Durant basketball team.

The Highlanders were undefeated on the road going into Saturday night’s game.

Lake Wales Head Coach Billy Washington attributed that to, “less distractions” and “more pressure” when playing at home.

Durant Coach Trent Tice was confident before the game even in the face of an opposing team with a lot more length.

“We’re pretty tall ourselves. We just need to do what we do and stay out of foul trouble,” he said.

“We’re ready. We’ve played really well our last ten games and feel like we’re hitting our peak right now.”

Durant’s AJ Nelson started off the game with a three-pointer. Je’Twan Smith hit one minutes later to make it 8-3 and Durant looked okay. Kevin Capers of Lake Wales converted a three-point play on the other end to close up the score to 8-6. Then it happened. Lake Wales initiated a stifling and insurmountable full-court press that was the difference in the game.

The press on the back end was followed by a vicious trapping game they put on point guard AJ Nelson every time he touched the ball.

Lake Wales star Oshey Washington got a steal and took it coast to coast for a dunk. Andre Nation answered on the other end with a dunk of his own.

The Cougars were shooting well and were able to move the ball despite smothering defense from the in-bound to the shot. Andre Nation got a great block on Oshey Washington trying to go up for another dunk and hit a three-pointer to make it 18-13 as the first quarter came to a close.

The Durant zone defense held up for most of the second quarter but Oshey Washington hit a three pointer with five minutes left to close the score to 23-18.

This is about where the pressure started to get to The Cougars. Lake Wales was crashing the boards, especially on the offensive end. Their field goal percentage was low but their second chance points allowed them to take the momentum away from Durant.

The game was intensely physical, more physical that Durant is used to playing. Lake Wales was starting to enforce their will on Durant and a three-pointer by Marcel White of Lake Wales gave them their first lead of the game at 26-23 and they never looked back.

They went on to outscore Durant 21-12 in the second quarter and finished the half up 34-30.

Durant went into the locker room hoping to find a counter to the Lake Wales pressure.

They did not.

Six-foot-6 Oshey Washington came out taking shots in the second half. He took a shot and made it 36-30, then took an elbow shot at five-foot-seven AJ Nelson on his way up the floor.

The full court pressure and offensive rebounding for Lake Wales, was frustrating Durant. After falling behind by eight, Andre Nation picked up his fourth foul and had to take a seat. The pressure just ramped up even more. Durant was simply unable to move the ball up the floor and got the ball stolen so many times, the game should have been a runaway.

The only thing that kept Durant in the game at that point was the poor free throw shooting by Lake Wales.

The Durant players looked stunned as again, Lake Wales stole the in-bounds pass and laid it up for two. There were stretches when Lake Wales stole the ball four times in a row before Durant could cross mid-court, let alone get a shot off.

Frustration started to set in on The Cougars and they were committing fouls all over the place. Sean McChord got booked for a technical chasing down a fast break steal. With 3:46 left in the third Andre Nation fouled out with just ten points.

Again, the poor free throw shooting kept The Cougars within eight points but the full-court pressure was overwhelming.

With Andre Nation on the bench, AJ Nelson took the team on his back and gave what he had to get The Cougars back in the game, but it wasn’t enough. The third quarter closed with the score 42-36 Lake Wales.

Durant would have done well to leave the court after the end of the third period.

With their star player out and still no answer for the swarming Lake Wales defense, Durant was as helpless as a wounded dolphin during a shark feeding frenzy.

Again, Lake Wales had four steals in a row before Durant could take a shot.

An alley-oop from Oshey Washington to Marcel White pushed the score out to 53-36 and basically ended the game.

Mike Crocker of Durant tried to get something going but then he fouled out and the feeding frenzy went into overdrive. 

With their two tallest players out, Durant simply could not get a rebound. Lake Wales took two, three, four shots before sinking one and stealing the in-bounds pass.

The rout was on and a second alley-oop from Oshey Washington to Marcel White put an exclamation point on the game. Washington would finish with 24 points. Lake Wales outscored Durant 28-2 in the fourth quarter.

“We have never seen a full-court press like that,” said Coach Tice after the game. 

“Once Andre fouled out, we had nowhere to go with the ball and that pressure really got to us.”