The Grace Christian Academy basketball teams had strong performances at the Northside Methodist Academy Christmas Tournament last weekend.

On Friday, both the Cougars and Lady Cougars defeated Emmanuel to advance to the finals on Saturday, where both teams ultimately lost to Northside Methodist.

Leading the way for the Cougars against Emmanuel was Sam McRae with 23 points. He went 5-of-8 on 3-pointers and also pulled down 9 rebounds.

Behind McRae was Jared Duke with 9 points, De’Andre Rogers with 8 points and Clay Wells and Seth Parker with 6 points each. Rogers also had 8 rebounds.

The Cougars led after each quarter, scoring 17 in the first quarter, 13 in the second quarter, 19 in the third quarter and 7 in the fourth quarter. GCA won 56-39.

Against Northside Methodist, McRae led the team in scoring again with 19 points.

Behind him was Wells with 10 points, Smith with 6 points and Parker with 5 points.

The Cougars led 27-20 at halftime and held Northside Methodist to 13 points while scoring 11 of their own in the third quarter. However, Northside Methodist poured in 29 points in the fourth quarter to take the lead. GCA scored 14 in the fourth.

The Lady Cougars beat Emmanuel last Friday 38-18 off a big scoring night from Caroline Wells and Emellia Woodrum, who had 13 points and 10 points respectively.

Behind them was Andrews with 6 points and McRae with 4 points. McRae had a strong night with rebounds, grabbing 10 to give the Lady Cougars the edge around the basket. Andrews also had 8 steals.

The Lady Cougars got a slow start against Northside Methodist, trailing 21-8 at halftime and only scoring 2 points in the third quarter. Northside Methodist went on to win 39-17.