Shawn DiGianfelice – Sportswriter
WARTRACE – The Cascade Lady Champions and Community Viqueens both had high hopes of reaching the District 9-AA tournament championship game coming in to Thursday’s semifinal matchups at Cascade High School. Second half scoring issues proved to be too much for each team to overcome. The Lady Champions led Summertown 22 to 16 at intermission only to see a determined Lady Eagles squad rally for a 43–36 come from behind victory. The Viqueens held a 15-10 lead at the break before seeing the Lady Mustangs take control in the third quarter and take claim to a 41–26 victory. The losses set up a third matchup between Community and Cascade in the consolation game on Saturday at 3 o’clock at Cascade. The two teams split in the two regular season matchups with each team winning on the road.
Summertown 43, Cascade 36
Cascade jumped out to an early lead with class AA Miss basketball finalist Keegan Young opening the game with her first of two three-point baskets to go up 3–0, one minute into the game. A basket by Lizzie Keel followed by two made free throws by Caroline Parker put Cascade up 7–0 with a little over four minutes left in the first quarter. Summertown responded with six unanswered points to cut the Lady Champion lead to one. A basket by Lexi Comstock extended Cascade’s advantage back to three at 9–6. Following a basket by Summertown’s Ella Busby, Young added two more points to give the Cascade a 11–8 lead going into the second quarter.
Parker added a pair of free throws to start the second stanza, extending Cascade’s advantage to 13–8. From there, both teams exchanged baskets with The Lady Champions claiming to a 22-16 lead heading to the locker room.
The third quarter opened with Summertown scoring the first five points of the second half, including a three pointer by Busby to cut the Cascade lead to 22-21. Two free throws one by Jocelyn Laughlin and one by Young extended the Cascade lead to 24-21. Back to back baskets from Tess Long and Busby gave Summertown their first lead of the game at 25–24 midway through the third quarter. Busby would add to the lead by hitting one of two free throws followed by a basket and foul leading to a three-point play, putting her team up 29–24 with two minutes remaining in the quarter. Young’s second three of the game cut the deficit to 29–27 with 1:41 left. Summertown’s Lena Brown scored with 45 seconds left in the third period to make the score 31–27 heading to the final quarter.
Two free throws by Parker and a basket by Young tied the game up at 31 with 5:32 remaining. A three pointer by the Lady Eagles El-Lee Lu Mason gave her team a 34–31 lead with five minutes remaining before Parker drained two free throws and a three-pointer to retake the lead 36–34 with four minutes to go. This would prove to be the last scoring for Cascade for the final four minutes of the game. Busby then scored and was fouled while shooting and made the free-throw giving her team a one point lead 37-36 with under two minutes remaining. Cascade would then be forced to foul and Summertown was able to connect on six out of eight free throws to close out the game with a 43-36 win and a spot in the 9-AA Championship.
Cascade head coach Janie Demonbreum felt that poor shooting from the three-point line and being out rebounded played a huge factor in the outcome of the game. “One of our strengths this year has been scoring from the three-point line. We shot 4 out of 24 from the three tonight, and they had several more rebounds than us. That makes it very difficult to win at any level. We have a tough group of ladies that have worked hard all year. It’s a tough loss for sure, but we still have a lot to play for.”
Cascade junior Caroline Parker (5) goes up for two of her team high sixteen points in a 43-36 loss to Summertown in the District 9-AA tournament semifinals. The Lady Champions will face Community on Saturday at 3 in the district consolation game.
Cascade was lead in scoring by Caroline Parker with 16 points followed by Kaegen Young with 13. Ella Busby lead Summertown with 18.
Summertown- 8-8-15-12—43
Cascade- 11-11-5-9—36
Summertown- Tess Long-7, Ella Busby-18, El-Lee Lu Mason-5, Gabi Long-9, Lena Brown-4, Franks, Bonner, Garland
Cascade- Caroline Parker-16, Kaegen Young-13, Lizzie Keele-4, Lexie Comstock-2, Jocelyn Laughlin-1
Three-Point Baskets: Summertown- 3: Busby-1 Mason-1, G. Long-1.
Cascade- 4: Parker-2 Young-2
Records: Cascade 21-7 Summertown 17-10
SECOND GAME:
Loretto 41 Community 26
Similar to Cascade in first contest, Community jumped out to an early 4–0 with Viqueen junior Anna Haskins connecting on two baskets. Ali Augustine scored Loretta‘s first basket to cut the community lead to 4–2 with 3:40 left to go. Baskets by Alyssa White and Haskins would extend the Viqueens lead to 8–2 with 43 seconds left before Loretto‘s Alexa Crosby hit a shot with eight seconds left to narrow the Community advantage to 8–4 heading to the second quarter.
White scored early in the second frame to extend the Viqueens lead to 10–4 followed by a Sarah Flanagan three point basket to give Community a nine point advantage at 13-4 with six minutes left before halftime. Loretto would then score 6 unanswered points over a four minute span with Augustine connecting on two free throws and a shot from the field along with a basket by Sophie Weathers to cut the Community lead to 13–10 with one minute left before halftime. During this span of time, Viqueen sophomore point guard Mattie Maxie sustained what appeared to be a lower body injury, which resulted in her not returning to the game. This proved to become a momentum changer over the final 18 minutes of the game. However, with the less than 30 seconds to go before intermission, Community junior Brooklyn Yoes would connect with Madisyn Hill on a sideline out of bounds pass, resulting in a layup to put Community up 15 to 10 heading to intermission.
Community senior Anna Haskins (3) works to score over Loretto’s Sophie Weathers (32). Haskins had six points for the Viqueens in the 41-26 loss to the Lady Mustangs in the District 9-AA tournament semifinals. The Viqueens will face Cascade on Saturday at 3 in the district consolation game.
The Viqueens would return after halftime and score the first two points of the second half on a shot by White to take a 17–10 lead with 7:35 remaining in the quarter. This would be the only points Community could manage in the third quarter as Loretto went on a 21-0 run over the last seven minutes of the quarter turning a 7 point deficit into a 14 point advantage for the Lady Mustangs, taking control of the game 31-17. Augustin lead the way with14 points, including a three pointer during the span to give the Lady Mustangs a double-digit lead heading to the final stanza.
Community would not go down without a fight as they battled to cut the Loretto lead to nine at 35–26 with 1:30 left to go on a three-point shot by sophomore Savannah Pearson. The Lady Mustangs would go on to hit six consecutive free throws, connecting on nine of thirteen shots from the line for the game extending the lead to 41-26 with the final score in favor of Loretto. In what was a physical game on both ends of the court, the Viqueens were unable to find their way to the foul line at any point during the game.
Community head coach Cody Pierce knew it would be a physical battle based on how both teams played each other during the regular season. “We knew it would be a battle to the end as both teams play very hard on both ends of the floor. With Mattie going down midway through the second quarter, it seemed that all the momentum flipped to Loretto’s side and we struggled to take care of the basketball giving them several chances to score and let the game slip away from us. I was pleased with our overall effort but getting outscored 21-2 in the third quarter proved to be to much of a hole to crawl out of. We will regroup tomorrow and get ready for Cascade just as I’m sure they will be doing for us.”
White lead Community with eight points. Augustin lead all scorers with twenty for Loretto followed By Weathers with ten.
The Viqueens will return to the court on Saturday at 3:00 at Cascade to face the Lady Champions with 3rd place in the district 9-AA tournament on the line.
Community – 8-7-2-9 — 26
Loretto- 4-6-21-10– 41
Halftime Score: Community 15 Loretto 10
Community- Savannah Pearson-5, Anna Haskins- 6, Alyssa White-8, Madison Hill-4, Sarah Flannagan- 3, Maxey, Yoes, Pridemore.
Loretto- Kinlee Stutts-2, Ally Augustin-20, Jessie Chance-4, Sophie Weathers-10, Alexa Crosby-5, Fisher, Craig, Lilly Augustin.
Three-Point Baskets: Community-2: Pearson-1, Flannagan-1
Loretto-2: Augustin-1, Crosby-1
Records: Community: 14-13. Loretto: 16-10