BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – The Cascade Champions (3-3) late-game surge against Cannon County (7-0) on Friday night came up just short, 72-68, after being down by as many as 12 points late in the fourth quarter.

Cascade outshot the Lions from downtown, 11-5, including five made triples from Tyler Rodgers as part of his team-high 21 points, but the Champions couldn’t slow down Lukas Phillips. Phillips finished with a game-high 31 points on an extremely efficient 12/17 shooting to go along with six rebounds, four assists, and one steal.

Anderson Lara also stepped up for Cannon County, finishing with 12 second-half points en route to 16 points total. Miles Alexander, despite being hampered by foul trouble the entire second half, chipped in with 10 of his 12 points coming in the first half.

For Cascade, outside of Rodgers, Kaleb Kelso and Henry Stone also reached double-figure scoring, each finishing with 14 points. Kelso added four assists and three rebounds while Stone also dished out four assists with three boards.

Kaleb Kelso (5) finished with 14 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal in Friday's loss to Cannon County.

David Smith

“We preach in practice about next-man up and about when we sub you in, help us don’t hurt us,” Cascade Head Coach Doug Worsley said, “I thought we did a good job tonight of when the game looked like it was getting away and we brought in some subs, they played with desperation and it wore off on everyone else. The takeaway is that it could have gotten bad, but they showed great character and fight to make it close.”

“We’re obviously not happy with the loss, but we improved from Tuesday night.”

Jaxon Gulick specifically stepped up considerably for the Champions in the second half on Friday. Gulick nailed his only two shot attempts – a layup and a three-pointer – in the fourth quarter, and he provided a level of intensity defensively that helped generate a couple rushed possessions and even a couple turnovers.

However, early on, Cannon County raced out to a 24-15 lead to end the opening period, and it looked like the home crowd at The Stable might be in for a reenactment of Tuesday’s defeat to Richland. Instead, Cascade fought back, outscoring the Lions, 21-15, in the second quarter to trim the lead to just three points going into the halftime locker room.

The majority of the third quarter was spent in a one or two-possession game, until Cascade seemingly melted down in the final 90 seconds with six turnovers in six possessions to give Cannon County a 54-45 lead heading into the final frame.

The Lions would extend their lead to 12 points about halfway through the fourth quarter before Cascade went on one final run, trimming the lead to 70-68 with 12 seconds remaining before fumbling the ball on a long pass up the floor that resulted in one final game-sealing turnover.

 “We’re not where we want to be – and you wouldn’t want to be there in December – but with this kind of effort and this kind of competitiveness, it speaks well for us moving forward,” concluded Worsley.

Cascade falls to 3-3, but can take quite a few positives from Friday’s contest into their game on Monday against Murfreesboro Central Magnet, LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 starting at 5:45 p.m.