The Canterbury Cougars managed to keep up with the Gateway Eagles until halftime on Wednesday, but things quickly went downhill from there. Canterbury suffered a rough 51-28 loss at the hands of Gateway. It was the first time this season that Canterbury let down their fans at home.
Despite the defeat, Canterbury saw an underclassman step up: Casey O'connell scored 15 points along with four steals and three blocks. That was a full 53.6% of Canterbury's points, marking the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Gateway's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Kenyah Moss led the charge by scoring 14 points along with eight rebounds and two steals. Moss hasn't dropped below eight rebounds for three straight games. V'Davrielle Johnson was another key contributor, scoring 17 points along with five steals.
Canterbury's defeat ended a six-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 10-4. As for Gateway, they pushed their record up to 10-2 with that win, which was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Canterbury will be playing in front of their home fans against First Baptist Academy at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully First Baptist Academy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up nine last Tuesday. As for Gateway, they won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Island Coast at 6:30 p.m. on January 18th. Island Coast will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 616th, while Gateway is ranked 160th).
