By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

A late-game charge lifted the Lafayette Christian School Cougars to a dramatic 59-57 win over LaGrange Academy in a cross-town showdown on Tuesday night.

Trailing by 10 points with less than five minutes to play, the Cougars finished the game on a 14-2 run to walk away with a 59-57 home win.

With Riley Hess leading the way, the Warriors went on a 15-5 run of their own to take a 55-45 lead with 4:30 to play.

Hess, a senior guard, scored 11 of his team’s points during that run to give the visiting team a 10-point cushion.

Lafayette Christian head coach David Gisler called a timeout, and he talked to the players about the importance of bearing down on the defensive end.

The Cougars responded by limiting the Warriors to two points the rest of the way.

fundamental things,” Craft said. “But it’s great to hear when the kids come off, coach I didn’t do this right. I’m glad to hear those kids starting to understand, and start to buy into that process.”

In the girls’ game, Troup lost 54-47.

The Lady Tigers are missing some key players because of injuries, so it was three freshmen leading the way in scoring.

“Some of our returners are out right now, so I only had two returners that suited up tonight,” Troup coach Carla Thornton said.

For the players who were on the court, Thornton said “we’ll take it as a lesson learned. We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to work on.”

Troup’s boys’ team will open the regular season on Monday with a road game against Opelika, while the Troup girls’ team will kick things off against McIntosh on Nov. 27.