Chapel Hill, Tenn. – The Cascade Champions (14-10, 4-3) knew coming into Friday night’s rematch against Chapel Hill (6-15, 0-7) that a win paired with a Grundy County win would ensure the Champs would avoid the 4-5 play-in game, and the visitors did just enough to hold off a late Rockets’ surge and come home with the 10-point win, 64-54.

Four different Champions scored in double-figures. Henry Stone, Kaleb Kelso, Jason Cullum, and Cooper McElroy all scored at least 11 points on the night with Stone leading the way with a team-high 19 points, including 13 in the second half. Kelso scored 14 of his 17 total points in the first half and pulled down six rebounds while McElroy put in seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter alone. Cullum finished with a near double-double, scoring 13 points and dishing out nine assists. 

For the Rockets, Tristan Goad led all scorers with a game-high 22 points, including 13 in the second half, to go along with five rebounds. Andrew Myers added 15 points and seven rebounds for Chapel Hill while Jon Hightower chipped in with 10 points to go along with three steals.

To start off, Cascade came out in a full-court pressure look, disrupting the Rockets and forcing eight turnovers to take a 15-5 lead at the end of the opening period. Chapel Hill only turned the ball over six more times all game, but the first quarter deficit proved to be too much to overcome in the end. 

In the second quarter, both teams began to get into an offensive rhythm with the Rockets outscoring Cascade, 21-19, in the period to go into the halftime locker room down by just eight points, 34-26.

Kaleb Kelso (5) scoops in 2 of his 14 first-half points in Friday's win.

David Smith

The Champions only committed two turnovers in the entirety of the first half, and yet the Rockets managed to continue to hang around by forcing Cascade to shoot just 5/15 from downtown.

Coming out of halftime, the Champs seemed to settle things down, holding Chapel Hill to just seven points in the third quarter to take a 44-33 lead going into the final frame. 

In the fourth quarter, Cooper McElroy and Henry Stone took over to close out the Rockets. The freshman McElroy scored seven points, including a dagger three-pointer in the corner right in front of the hometown student section late in the fourth quarter. Champs’ Head Coach Chris Lawson posted up Stone on the low block a few possessions, and the junior delivered every time down the floor with strong takes to the cup. Stone even connected from downtown in the second half for just his fourth made three-pointer on the season. 

In the end, Cascade held off a late Rockets’ rally to win by 10 points, 64-54, and pick up their fourth District 9-AA win of the season. After Grundy County survived against Community in OT a few minutes later, the Champs officially locked up the third seed in next week’s District 9-AA Tournament.

Cascade improves to 14-10 (4-3) and returns home to wrap up district play in the “Battle of Bedford” against Community on Tuesday, LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 starting at 5:45 p.m.