By By JEFF FISHER / Niles Daily Star
CASSOPOLIS - The Cassopolis Rangers dropped a tough Lakeland Conference game Tuesday night to the Coloma Comets, 64-61 at Ross Beatty High School.
Cass started the game with back to back buckets by Cass' Kevin Luckey giving the Rangers an early 5-0 lead.
Coloma responded quickly and by the end of the first quarter it was all knotted up at 18.
Coloma began the second quarter the same as Cass did in the first by hitting its first two baskets. Coloma took a 35-29 lead at the 2:12 mark in the second, primarily on the post offensive play of Coloma's Jake Boven. Boven scorched Cass for 16 first half points as the Rangers had no answer for Boven.
Cassopolis went into halftime down 33-37.
The Rangers took an early 38-37 lead in the third quarter before a Comets' comeback. Coloma outsccored Cass 14-11 in the third quarter to take a 37-33 lead.
Coloma went on a 6-0 run to begin the fourth and stretched it's lead to 57-44.
Luckey single handedly brought the Rangers back. Luckey hit a "3" to make it a 61-53 lead at the 2:22 mark. A couple of Luckey baskets later, it was a 61-63 Coloma lead with 54.6 to in regulation.
Comets hit one free throw to give them a three point lead, then Cass called a time out. A shot by Luckey went off the rim as time had expired.
Luckey scored 13 fourth quarter points, and outscored the Comets in that quarter.
The Comets were led in scoring by Boven with 18 points, Sebastian Lewis with 14, and Milo Jeffries with 11.
The Rangers were led in scoring by Luckey with 30 points, Neal Bullocks with seven points and two other Rangers with six points each.
The Rangers, currently on a three game losing skid will hope to reverse that as they will travel to Brandywine on Friday Feb. 4 in a LAC match up.
Cass falls to 5-7 overall and 3-6 in conference action.