COLD SPRINGS — Josh Freeman and Triston Chambers would be deserving choices for Thursday night’s game ball against Danville.

But they wouldn’t be the right one.

No, that honor belonged to Jesse Lee, who served as a sparkplug with nine of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to help Cold Springs put away the Hawks 82-56.

Lee’s late run included a long-range bounce pass to Freeman for a layup and a pair of three-point plays, one at the line and the other behind the arc. Every contribution was needed after Danville had cut the deficit from 19 in the second quarter to only nine in three different instances in the fourth.

“I was just doing what my team needed me to do,” Lee said. “We got a little out of hand, got a little crazy, but we got the W. That’s all that matters.”

Cayde Elliott completed a four-point play in the corner to round out the scoring and give him six for the evening.

Just two games — and two wins — into the season, Freeman is feeling “pretty good” about his squad’s prospects this winter.

“We’ve got something special around here in Cold Springs,” he said.

Don’t think that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement, though.

“We’ve got to work on getting everybody hustling till the final buzzer sounds,” Freeman added. “And no more fouls.”

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Varsity Girls

Cold Springs 52, Danville 33

A 10-0 run early in the third quarter quickly turned a two-point game at halftime into an eventual rout for the Lady Eagles.

Camryn Crider, Emme Willoughby, Bailey West and Aubrey Negron orchestrated the rally, and Willoughby took the reins the rest of the quarter to firmly put Cold Springs in charge.

West (15 points), Willoughby (14) and Crider (12 and three 3’s) all cracked double-digits offensively, as did Negron in the rebounding department with a whopping 15 boards. Rilee White and Willoughby each corralled eight rebounds, while West came down with six. West rounded out her stat-line with five assists and Willoughby, three steals.

“I thought we kind of picked the intensity up in the third quarter and kind of got away from that timidness in the first half,” Cold Springs coach Tammy West said. “I thought we started adjusting a little bit better on defense, which we’d only given up 15 at halftime anyway. I think we started running the floor a little bit, and I think Emme kind of took over inside. And we had some good, good rebounding tonight.”

Though the Lady Eagles improved to 2-0, there’s one area that still requires more polishing than any other. West knew exactly what it was, too — “free-throw woes.”

A 15-of-29 display from the gimme distance had the coach crying “déjà vu” from similar issues a season ago.

“I just don’t know what to do,” she said. “You make it a point of emphasis, it seems to get worse. A lot of it’s mental. But we have not shot a lot of free throws so far. We haven’t worked on them enough, I don’t guess.”

Class 2A Cold Springs will travel to 6A Walker next Thursday.