The Grace Christian Academy Cougars basketball team divided two games in the Border Wars Tournament in Phenix City, Alabama on Monday, Dec. 28, and Tuesday, Dec. 29.

On Monday, the Cougars dropped a 59-50 decision to the Lee-Scott Academy Warriors of Auburn Alabama and on Tuesday they defeated the Evangel Christian Academy Lions of Montgomery Alabama 42-27.

Leading the way for the Cougars Monday against the Warriors was Jack McRae with 24 points, 8 rebounds and a steal. Also in double figurers for the Cougars were Sam McRae and Noah Thomas with 12 points apiece.

Rounding out the Cougars rebounding chart behind Jack McRae was Nate Walton with 6, Noah Thomas with 3, Anders Austinson with 2 and Sam McRae with 2. Noah Thomas had 4 assists, Jack McRae had 2, Dakota Vickers had 2 and Sam McRae had 1.

Sam McRae came up with 3 steals, and Jack McRae, Noah Thomas and Nate Walton came up with a steal apiece.

In Tuesday’s Cougar second round win over the Lions, Noah Thomas and Jack McRae combined for 35 points. Thomas led the way with 19 and McRae put in 16. Rounding out the Cougars scoring chart were Nate Walton with 5 and Sam McRae with 2.

The Cougars rebounding chart featured Nate Wakton with 12, Dakota Vickers with 5 and Jack McRae with 4.Noah Thomas had 3 assists and Jack McRae 3 steals and 2 assists.

Cougars head coach Mallory McRae liked his team’s effort in both tournament games.

“I thought that in the game with Lee-Scott Academy we played one of the better games of our season in terms of execution,” he said. “Lee-Scott had too much height and depth. They just wore us down toward the end of the game. I was proud of our guys. They did a great job of not giving up. We were in it until the end.”

“I am also extremely proud of how our team played against Evangel. Evangel played really tight man-to-man defense, and our guys did a great job of handling the pressure. Our big guys did a great job of controlling the boards which truly helped us win the game.”