Improved Champs halt Eagleville

EAGLEVILLE -- After running into a slick spot in the latter part of its District 9-A schedule, Cascade needed to grab hold of the wheel and steer things back onto the straight and narrow with the postseason right around the corner.

It did just that Friday night as the Champions took control early and finished strong late to defeat district-leading Eagleville 57-48.

The team that lost by three at Middle Tennessee Christian and by 40 at Forrest in its last two 9-A contests in no way resembled the one on the floor against the Eagles (17-5, 11-2 9-A).

"It's a culmination of a lot of hard work over the last three days from the players and the coaches," Cascade coach Charlie Pope said. "You're talkin' to a coach of a bunch of kids that's got a lot of pride. They were embarrassed over what's happened the last couple of games, and I was too. I mean, it's basketball. Over the course of a season, you're going to have some ugly times and some good times. You just have to hang on and enjoy the ride. Not that we like to lose, but sometimes you can learn more from the losses than you can from the wins."

When Eagleville went on a 10-1 run to knot the game at 45-all with 4:21 to play, Cascade (14-10, 10-4) dug in and responded with 12 unanswered points. Only Kevin Brown's 3-pointer with 5 seconds left kept the hosts from being shut out the entire second half of the fourth quarter.

The Champs knocked down 9-of-12 free throws over that stretch to secure the victory.

"When you finish a game like that, you should win most of those," Pope said.

Cascade senior post Gerald "Happy" Johnson led both teams with 18 points, including a 6-of-8 performance at the foul line. Jared Carkuff scored 10 points.

Tyler Davenport hit three 3s and paced Eagleville with 17 points. Brown got nine of his 14 points in the final period. Guard Jonathan Porter was unable to play with tonsillitis.

For the first time in five games, Cascade managed at least 20 free-throw attempts, and made 14. The Eagles hit 5-of-8.

"It's not rocket science, I didn't do anything just brilliant," Pope said. "We made a few tweaks to the lineup, put in a couple little things and our bench responded tonight. We played nine guys in the first half, and every one of them responded with effort and energy."

The Champs concluded their league slate in grand fashion, likely sealing up a No. 2 seed in the 9-A tournament, by taking command early with a 19-point first quarter, thanks in part to a seven-point frame from Johnson. Davenport helped keep Eagleville in it with 10 of their first 12 points.

"We kept the game plan extremely simple. We didn't try to complicate matters. We just played good man-to-man defense, and we got the ball inside," Pope said.

An Austin Hawks basket just beat the horn to shrink the Eagles' halftime deficit to 30-24.

The margin stayed at six with each team totaling nine points in the third quarter.

After falling at home to top-ranked Clarksville Academy earlier in the season, the Champs welcome another Region 5-A foe to Wartrace when East Robertson visits Tuesday night at 7:30.