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Lafayette Christian used a fourth-quarter surge to come from behind and beat Covington 82-69 to advance to the second round of the state playoffs.

The Cougars trailed 61-59 heading to the fourth after a third-quarter collapse saw them outscored 29-14. It was the only quarter of the game in which the Cougars scored under 20 points.

Lafayette Christian needed a hero in the fourth and got one in the form of senior Bruno Tellez, who scored 14 of his 31 points. He single-handedly outscored Covington in the fourth.

Tellez hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter that put him at 1.000 points scored as a Cougar.

Without Tellez it might not have been the Cougars’ night. A usually calm and even-keeled Dave Gisler, the LCS head coach, was fired up between the third and fourth quarters after his team’s meltdown in the third. Gisler’s fiery speech worked as the Cougars put together their best quarter of the game, outscoring Covington 23-8.

It was all Cougars early before their third-quarter slip. 

Lafayette Christian had just a 21-16 lead after one quarter of play but quickly parlayed that into a double-digit lead (45-32) heading into halftime.

The Cougars used a strong performance by senior point guard Joshua Zapata, who scored 22 points in the game. 

David Karvelas and Jonathan Pierson also made winning plays for the Cougars and tallied 12 and 10 points, respectively. Vakiel Hammett finished with nine points in the game.

After missing the playoffs last season due to a technicality, the Cougars were not just happy to be back in the playoffs. The team is on the hunt for a deep run and will get a chance to extend their stay in the playoffs when they travel to Savannah to take on The Habersham School Patriots on Thursday.