Cascade senior Stefin Reed receives a hard foul on his way to the rack from Middle Tennessee Christian's Tyler Watson. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

Five young men leaped through their numbers at introductions, started the contest and gave their team all they had for the first 9:15 in Cascade's 57-32 win over visiting Middle Tennessee Christian.

Terrell Johnson, Seth Day, Stefin Reed, Alex Craig and Caleb Davis celebrated Senior Night in grand fashion on Friday with a victory for the Champions to conclude regular season play.

"They were all juiced up when we started, but they settled down and started executing and defended very well," said Cascade coach Charlie Pope of his group that were freshmen when he came to the school in 2003.

"These five seniors have meant a lot to me. They were the guinea pigs, so to speak, into what we were doing. They believed in what we were doing. Their parents believed in what we were doing.

"I guess I'm the Dick Vermeil of high school basketball coaches because I get emotional thinking about it. It's going to be an emotional moment when they've played their last game for me. Hopefully that's going to be awhile."

In barely three quarters of play, Brandon Hall tallied a game-high 16 points for the Champs (17-11, 9-3 9-A). Reed contributed 12 and Jacob Carkuff 10.

The defensive side of the ball turned the heads of the Cascade coaching staff as no Cougar reached double figures. The visitors were held to just three field goals in each of the first three quarters.

"The effort defensively was much much much better than it was (against Eagleville)," Pope said.

The victory locked the Champs into the No. 2 seed for next week's 9-A tourney.

"It's huge for a lot of reasons," Pope said. "It put us back in the win column and back on track to our goals. We wanted to hold onto the second seed for the tournament."

The hosts led 27-13 at halftime and 44-21 entering the fourth quarter.

Middle Tennessee Christian (9-17, 3-9) was led by Jake Siler's eight points.