The La Center Wildcats split last week’s league opening slate with a 48-38 win over Castle Rock High School on Wednesday, Dec. 18, and a 57-26 loss to Seton Catholic High School on Thursday, Dec. 19.
The Wildcats sit 1-1 in the 1A Trico League but began their season on a high note, going 3-1 in their nonleague schedule. La Center picked up wins against 3A Greater St. Helens League Heritage High School and 4A GSHL Battle Ground Tigers, pleasing coach Chris Heath.
“I’ve felt pretty good,” Wildcats head coach Chris Heath said about their start to the season. “We had some good wins against a 4A and a 3A team, so there’s been some good wins. It’s a lot of things to work on, but we play hard, we play aggressive and we get to the rim to get a lot of free throws. That was one goal this season is to get a lot of free throws.”
La Center’s Riley Schultz scored a team high 10 points, with eight in the first quarter. The Wildcats found themselves down 18-10 in the first but never found a way to stop the Cougars.
La Center scored a lone field goal in the second quarter, finding themselves down 33-14 at half.
Heath said the Wildcats have been boosted offensively by Schultz’s ability to move the ball forward for the offensive attack, adding that the team as a whole has improved compared with last season and getting past press defense.
Heath added that his team still needs to learn to fight through large deficits to learn in-game action.
“For the rest of the season we just need to learn to fight through when we’re down because we have been down on some games, obviously down today, down against Woodland, and I don’t want us to just give up,” he said. “We still need to push and fight through and be willing to know that we can come back … We need to improve offensively at times, run through sets and make shots.”
The La Center Wildcats’ next league game will be at home at 7 p.m. Jan. 6 against Columbia-White Salmon High School.
