Champs have good 'Day' against MTC

Cascade jumped on Middle Tennessee Christian early and maintained a solid lead throughout in a 53-40 District 9-A win on Tuesday night in Wartrace.

Cascade's Cory Phillips wrestles for the ball with a couple Cougars. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

The young, seniorless Champions used their aggressive style of play to get to the free-throw line 20 times, making their seventh consecutive contest whereby they had a minimum of 15 free throw attempts.

"We make it a point in our offensive system to get the ball inside," Cascade coach Charlie Pope said. "Obviously we have some talented players inside and our guards can feed off that. It's by design.

"Our kids understand that the harder we go to the basket with the intent to score, the better off we're going to be."

Seth Day led the scoring charge for the hosts with 15 points, including a 5-for-7 effort at the free-throw line. Alex Craig tallied 12 points and Brandon Hall contributed 11.

The Cougars never closed to within fewer than three points of the Champs after the first quarter.

Cascade (11-5, 4-2 in 9-A) led 14-9 after the first frame thanks to eight points from Day. They held a 29-18 upper hand at the half and were up 36-25 entering the final stanza.

"Our press worked for us tonight," Pope said. "We wore them out and they got tired."

Leif Kixmiller had 12 points to lead Middle Tennessee Christian (7-12, 2-4). Jake Siler added 10.

"They'll be hard to beat at their place so it was very important for us to hold home court."

Cascade faces Webb in a non-district contest on Saturday night.

"If anybody's paid attention to the paper, Webb's gotten a whole lot better," Pope said. "Webb's played a whole lot of people tough. This is something we've got to be up for. They're going to come out with a lot of emotion and a lot of energy. We're going to have to match it."