BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – The Cascade Lady Champions (14-3, 1-0) found a way to survive a late Loretto (7-8, 0-1) comeback attempt on Friday, opening the District 9-AA slate with a hard-fought 51-49 win.

Cascade didn’t trail again after falling behind early in the first quarter, but they also never saw its lead reach double-digits. This game featured two BCAT 2025-26 Player of the Year Midseason Watchlist nominees, and Cascade’s Class AA Miss Basketball candidate, Kaegan Young, came out victorious in the first head-to-head matchup against Loretto's Sophie Weathers. Young went 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the final 60 seconds to keep Loretto at arm’s length after the Lady Mustangs came roaring back from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit. Young, after starting the game with a meager three points in the first half, closed strong with a game-high 22 points, finishing 18-of-26 from the charity stripe after starting just 1-of-5. 

“She [Young] stepped up to the line and did exactly what she needed to do to close out the game," Cascade Head Coach Janie Demonbreum said postgame, "I get kinda frustrated when we start missing free throws because we could be up a little more, but there’s a lot of woulda-shoulda-coulda’s. Stepping up and hitting those free throws at that time was huge.”

Young also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds with Suzanna Crews sidelined for the fourth-consecutive game.

The Lady Champs struggled from the line overall, shooting just 26-for-39 to keep Loretto hanging around in the game. Cascade took its largest lead of the night, 40-32, nearly halfway through the fourth quarter, but Loretto’s Sophie Weathers would not let her team go down without a fight. Weathers, who managed just six points in the first half, closed with 17 of Loretto’s 19 fourth-quarter points to finish with a game-high 23. However, Loretto never had the ball down by one possession. After using their final timeout with 15 seconds left, Weathers’ layup with three seconds to go ensured Cascade did not have to inbound the ball again to hold on to the win.

Both squads set the tone with extremely tough and physical defense from the opening tap, and it ultimately resulted in four players fouling out. Lexi Comstock for the Lady Champs, and then Alexa Crosby, Ally Augustin, and Kinlee Stutts for the Lady Mustangs. As a team, Cascade shot a putrid 28% from the field, but they held Loretto didn’t fare much better, shooting just 33% from the floor.

Caroline Parker (5) drives to the basket in the first quarter in Friday's win over Loretto. Parker led Cascade with nine first-half points and finished the game with just one turnover against the Mustangs' pressure

David Smith

After the visitors opened things up by taking an early lead, 6-5, Cascade responded with a lightning-quick 7-0 spurt in 49 seconds, punctuated by a Caroline Parker three-pointer that prompted a timeout from Loretto with 2:40 to go in the period. The Lady Champions closed out the first quarter with a 14-10 lead. 

In the second quarter, Parker began to find a few cracks in the Lady Mustang defense, scoring nine of her 10 total points in the first half alone. 

“Caroline hasn’t had what she and I would consider the best games over the last few weeks, so this was a massive game for her to step up in," Demonbreum said. "She handled the ball for us against their man, and she was able to read when she had a mismatch and could take some drives to the basket. Those plays are huge for us.”

Lizzie Keele chipped in, netting seven of her 10 total points in just the first half as well. Meanwhile, Loretto was able to stay within two possessions the entire period with Ally Augustin finding her rhythm, scoring eight of her 12 points in the opening 16 minutes. Then, with 1.7 seconds to go, Kaegan Young knocked down her first field goal of the game on an and-one layup. However, she missed the free throw, sending Cascade into the halftime locker room with a 26-19 lead.

Loretto opened the second half by holding Cascade scoreless for the first 6:08 of the third quarter, trimming the lead to just a single point, 26-25. Young broke the drought with a pair of free throws at the 1:52 mark, allowing the hosts to set up their press. After Parker came away with a steal, Young found herself back at the line with 1:40 to go, splitting a pair to go up by four, 29-25. After a free throw from Jocelyn Laughlin combined with Young going 3-of-4 in the final 90 seconds, Cascade managed to take a three-point lead into the final frame, 33-30, despite not hitting a single shot from the field.

Weathers opened the scoring less than 30 seconds into the fourth to trim the lead back down to one point. Parker split a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession, then Keele nailed a three-pointer from the left wing for Cascade’s first made field goal of the second half. This long-range connection came in the midst of another 7-0 spurt for the Lady Champs that took just 56 seconds. The hosts lead grew to 40-32 with 6:02 to go, and then for the next 90 seconds, neither team scored until Augustin knocked in a pair of free throws with 4:31 remaining. 

Despite an incredible fourth quarter from Weathers, Young maintained her cool at the free throw line, missing just once when the pressure was at its highest in the final 60 seconds and ensuring Loretto always had the basketball down at least two possessions.

The Lady Champions improve to 14-3 overall. Cascade travels to Unionville for the first edition of the ‘Battle of Bedford’ on Tuesday night, LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 starting at 5:45 p.m.