All week long we worked on catch and shoot, catch and shoot, catch and shoot, and he [Noah Watson] was ready.”

Cascade Champions HC Doug Worsley

CENTERVILLE, Tenn. – After finishing in fourth place in the District 9-AA Tournament, the Cascade Champions (16-13, 4-4) knew they would have a massive opportunity for a major upset in the Region 5-AA Quarterfinals against the District 10-AA winners, Hickman County (18-9, 5-1). Knowing and doing are two different things, but they went hand-in-hand on Saturday night, culminating in a 50-48 win that went down to the final possession and sent shockwaves throughout the region. 

After Kaleb Kelso split a pair of free throws to give Cascade a two-point lead with 11.1 seconds left, Hickman County had three attempts to either tie or win the game, and none of them went down. First, Will McDonald’s top of the key triple careened off left, then Tim Puckett’s 10-foot fadeaway was short, and finally Tyler McKennon’s putback attempt rolled off the rim as the buzzer sounded. The Champions bounded away in jubilant celebration in front of their traveling fans while the hometown Bulldogs – who had made the State Tournament each of the last two years – were left in shock and disbelief. 

“Watching a lot of film, we saw they didn’t play super fast, and we wondered if we could speed them up,” Cascade head coach Doug Worsley said postgame, “Obviously we gave up some threes that we didn’t want to, but the end result was we sped them up and made them uncomfortable for most of the game. I thought they were out of rhythm a lot.”

The Champions gave up eight three-pointers in the first half, including six in a row from the Bulldogs’ Tim Puckett, but the visitors stayed the course defensively and held the hosts to zero makes from outside the arc in the second half.

“We knew our defensive gameplan was solid, but [Tim] Puckett just kept making shots,” said Worsley, “I kept telling guys to get out there quicker to run him off the three-point line and give up a two instead, and we were able to cool him off by halftime. The rest of the guys just kind of rallied the troops. Once we settled down and shared the ball a little bit more – we were too fast in the first half with one pass and a shot – I thought we looked a lot more comfortable as the game went on.”

Early on, the nerves were evident, and the Bulldogs took advantage. Despite two timeouts from Cascade, Hickman County connected on six early triples – including four from Puckett – to take a 20-8 lead at the end of the opening period.

In the second stanza, Bradyn Brown nailed his only trey of the night to give Hickman County what would be their largest lead of the night, 23-10, just over a minute into the frame. All the momentum seemed to be on the Bulldogs side, but slowly but surely Cascade managed to string stops together to close out the half. The Champions settled down offensively with Kaleb Kelso finding a way to the free throw line, and the visitors closed the half on a 15-6 run over the final 6:08 to head into the halftime locker room trailing by just four points, 29-25. Kelso scored 13 points in the first two quarters en route to his team-high 17 points to lead Cascade while Cooper McElroy got going with a pair of triples and finished with eight of his 15 points in the first half. 

Meanwhile, Tim Puckett went 6-of-8 from downtown in the half, finishing with 18 points, but he would not score again after halftime.

Despite Dylan Qualls attempting to force the issue in the third quarter for Hickman County, Cascade felt like they had the majority of the momentum in the period. The Champions outscored the Bulldogs, 12-10, as they cut the lead to 39-37 heading into the dramatic final frame.

With 5:30 to go, Ryder Pilkington knotted the game up at 41 with an acrobatic off-hand floater in the lane for his second and final bucket of the night. Kelso gave Cascade their first lead of the second half after he split a pair of free throws with 4:50 left before McKennon converted on an old-fashioned three-point play for his only field goal of the game to give the Bulldogs the lead again.

McElroy split a pair at the line for Cascade with 3:51 to go before Stone split a pair on the next possession to tie the game at 44. On Hickman County’s ensuing possession, Tim Puckett found enough space to get off a three from the top of the key, but a strong contest from McElroy forced a miss. McElroy continued leaking out to the other end while Tyler Rodgers snared the rebound, and after Rodgers’ long lead pass found the sophomore’s hands, McElroy went up for the emphatic two-handed throwdown to give Cascade a 46-44 lead with 2:18 to play. McDonald turned it over on the ensuing possession, and Cascade officially had all the momentum.

However, Kelso had the ball knocked away by Bradyn Brown, and Brown’s layup would tie the game at 46 with 1:30 to go. Facing all the pressure of a win-or-go-home situation on the road, the Champions buckled down despite the turnover, resulting in Noah Watson knocking down the shot of the season on the ensuing possession.

Initially, Kelso threw the ball to Henry Stone in the high post, and Stone found space spinning to his right to drive the ball to the paint on Brown. McKennon slid down to help off of his man to stop the drive, but that left Watson open in the corner. Stone hit him with a perfect pass, and despite the flailing closeout by McKennon, Watson rattled home the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:13 remaining to take a 49-46 lead with 1:13 to go.

“We were patient, and we knew his [Noah Watson] man would help on the drive, and I told the guys you’ve got to slide to the corner, keep your space, and be ready to shoot,” Worsley said, “All week long we worked on catch and shoot, catch and shoot, catch and shoot, and he was ready.”

“They [Kelso, McElroy, and Stone] didn’t freak out and force up a quick shot, they ran through the offense and got to the next option until we got to a really great option.”

Cascade forced Hickman County to use up nearly a full 45 seconds on the Bulldogs next possession, resulting in McDonald knocking down a pair of free throws to trim the lead to just a single point with 21.3 seconds left. 10 seconds later, Kelso found himself at the line, a place that Cascade struggled mightily at the entire night. The Champions finished 12-of-25 at the stripe, but Kelso managed to split a pair to give the visitors a two-point lead. After the Bulldogs were unable to find the bucket on the final possession, Cascade’s celebrations ensued.

The Champions improve to 16-13 overall on the season. Cascade now sets its sights on a rematch with District 9-AA foe, Loretto, on Tuesday night at East Hickman High School in the Region 5-AA Semifinal with tip-off set for 7:45 p.m. LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400.

CASCADE: K. Kelso 17 (2), C. McElroy 15 (2), T. Billings 5 (1), N. Watson 5 (1), R. Pilkington 4, H. Stone 3, T. Rodgers 1.

HICKMAN CO: T. Puckett 18 (6), W. McDonald 9 (1), D. Qualls 8, B. Brown 5 (1), T. McKennon 4, J. Floyd 2, K. Seale 2.