The Cougars took a tough loss that they'd like to forget about this past Tuesday against Hollis-Brookline. Even though the JV Cougars were by far the better team, there was a weird feeling to the game right from the start. In the end it was something the team could not overcome. After a sluggish start, the JV Cougars ended the first quarter with a 15 - 9 lead. They played steady in a fast moving second quarter that featured hardly any whistles and went into the half with a 27-19 lead.

Upon returning to the floor, the rim on the backboard had somehow come loose and play was stopped for roughly 20-25 minutes. This definitely took momentum away from the JV Cougars while they were forced to stand around and sit by their bench. When the whistle blew to start the third quarter, the Cougars had little fight left in them. They slowly let HB crawl back into the game, yet, still held a 37 to 32 lead going into the fourth. In the fourth, the Cougars scored just 6 points while letting up 12, and had 3 costly turnovers in the last two minutes of the game.

The Cougars lost their lead with just around a minute left to play and couldn't get it back. Joe Gutwein was able to get a miraculous steal with 26 seconds left. He passed the ball up to a teammates and with a fast break opportunity that featured three Cougars open for wide open layups that would have given them the lead...a triple team from Hollis caused a costly turnover. The Cougars miraculously got the ball back after a Hollis turnover with 7 seconds left. With a timeout, Coach drew up a play that the Cougars ran perfectly, the ball just didn't hit the bottom of the net, and time expired.

The JV Cougars gave themselves a chance in the last 30 seconds, but costly mistakes put the game out of reach.

The JV Cougars have two home games next week against Coe-Brown on Tuesday and Plymouth on Friday.