Post Photos by Rickey Clardy Sophie Ray drives to the basket and scores for the Lady Champs. Ray had 13 points in the Cascade win.
Anna Haskins of the Viqueens connects on a trey for the opening basket of the game. Haskins led Community with 21 points.
By RICKEY CLARDY
Sports Writer
BELL BUCKLE — In her team’s previous game this season against the Community Viqueens, Coach Janie Demonbreum felt her Cascade Lady Champion squad lost its aggressiveness in the second half after losing a halftime lead in its loss to the Viqueens.
On Friday night, the Lady Champions once again led at halftime in their rematch against the Viqueens, but this time they didn’t take their foot off the pedal.
The Lady Champions took the lead for good in the second quarter and their defense kept the Viqueens from scoring a field goal during a seven-minute stretch as Cascade took a 48-39 win in a District 9-AA game.
“Yesterday when we came into practice, our girls just had a different vibe about them,” Demonbreum said. “The way that they are playing is the way that I know they can continuously play throughout the rest of this season.”
The teams played on even terms in the opening quarter.
Anna Haskins of the Viqueens connected on three treys to account for nine of her team’s 11 points as Community (6-14, 2-1) took a 9-4 lead.
Kaegan Young scored four points for the Lady Champs as Cascade (8-13, 2-3) fought back and used a 3-pointer by Laina Carter to tie the game at 11-11 heading to the second quarter.
The Viqueens trailed 16-15 with 2:59 remaining in the quarter before the well went dry. Community went scoreless for the rest of the half while Sophie Ray scored the last six points for the Lady Champs as Cascade took a 22-15 lead into the intermission.
Community could only manage one free throw in the first four minutes of the third quarter as the Lady Champs extended their lead.
Young led the way with seven points as Cascade took its biggest lead at 30-16 before a trey by Hawkins broke the Viqueen 7-minute drought from the field.
Hawkins had five points in the quarter as Cascade took a 37-25 advantage into the final quarter.
Led by seven points from Hawkins, the Viqueens clawed back and trailed the Lady Champs 44-39 with 1:16 to play.
Community would not score for the remainder of the game as Young connected on four free throws in the final minute to extend the Lady Champion lead and give Cascade a split in the regular season series.
“I’ve wanted this for these girls for so long,” Demonbreum said. “Community has been excellent for so many years and for some of these girls, they’ve never beaten Community.”
“I’m just really happy and proud for my girls. We played hard and executed our game plan to a tee,” Demonbreum added.
“They played well tonight. We didn’t do a good job on both ends and we didn’t work hard enough tonight,” Coach Cody Pierce of the Viqueens said. “We were going through the motions for most of the game.”
“The last four minutes, we kind of kicked it into gear on both ends,” Pierce added. “We just waited too long to get going.”
Young had 17 points and Ray added 13 to lead the Lady Champs.
Haskins finished with 21 points and was the only Viqueen in double figures.
The Lady Champions were 14-of-21 from the foul line while the Viqueens were 10-of-13.
The Viqueens start a 3-game homestand with a non-district game against Harpeth Tuesday night. Game time is 6 p.m.
“We still have a lot of district games and we’ve got a couple of teams we haven’t played yet,” Pierce said. “We’ve got a lot of room to make up for this.”
Community 11 4 10 14 — 39
Cascade 11 11 15 11 — 48
Community: Anna Haskins 21, Alyssa White 6, Brooklyn Yoes 4, Jayla Mangrum 4, Taylar Wessner 2, Kathryn Sego 2, Gracie Daniel.
Cascade: Kaegan Young 17, Sophie Ray 13, Kaydence Miller 6, Hailey Giel 2, Suzanna Crews 2, Laina Carter 6, Anna Clanton 2.
3-Point goals: Community (5): Haskins 4, Yoes; Cascade (2): Carter 2.
Halftime score: Cascade 22, Community 15.
