All season long Lady Champion coach Kendall Hampton has been looking for a four-quarter effort from her squad.
Having been hampered by injuries and illness so far this year, the team hasn’t truly run at full-strength all year.
Not only was the team back at full strength on Tuesday night against Eagleville, but Cascade gave a four-quarter effort and then some in a 45-41 overtime victory over the Lady Eagles.
“This is the second game this season that we’ve dressed everybody we started the season with and not had injury or illness. Because of all those things early on, a lot of our underclassmen got a lot of time on the court. They’ve grown and gotten better. Now, we’re very deep. I think we ran them down and they got tired because they only run about seven deep,” Hampton said.
A 15-point fourth-quarter effort wasn’t enough to win it outright in regulation, but the efficiency at the line in overtime by Lani Jones was enough to cement the four-point win.
After a pair of layups by Jones to open the extra four-minute period, Eagleville opted to foul with 1:16 left.
In that overtime period, Jones was effective enough, connecting on 5-of-8 tries.
“I think she might have been 50 or 60% but she hit the ones when it mattered. It put them in a position to where no matter what they did, they couldn’t close that gap. They were going to have to continue to foul us,”
In the previous meeting, Eagleville ran away with a 71-28 blowout victory over the Lady Champs.
Defensively, Cascade had a game plan to mark the top Lady Eagles scorers on defense.
The plan worked.
“Last time, their top two scored 25 and 15. We had a plan and our girls executed it,” Hampton said.
While the first half was a struggle at times, Eagleville could never fully put Cascade away.
The Lady Eagles worked their way to the line, but managed just a 10-of-27 effort on the night at the charity stripe, while Cascade connected on 12-of-24 tries.
Jordan Green and Caroline Stone led three Lady Champions in double figures with 11 points, while Jones added 10.
Meah Thompson was the top scorer for the Lady Eagles and finished with 12 points, while Alex Klarer chipped in 10.
The win snapped a six-game skid and gives Cascade a bit of momentum heading into Friday night’s District 7-AA opener at Grundy County.
Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.

Eagleville 7 11 10 8 5 — 41
Cascade 8 6 7 15 9 — 45

Eagleville: Meah Thompson 12, Alex Klarer 10, Isabella Sawyer 7, Eliza McClaran 6, Shelbie Mooneyham 4, Brinli Bain.
Cascade: Jordan Green 11, Caroline Stone 11, Lani Jones 10, Annabelle Calvert 6, Kaydence Miller 4, Sophie Ray 2.
3-Point goals: Cascade (3): Calvert 2, Green; Eagleville (2): McClaran , Thompson.
Halftime score: Eagleville 18, Cascade 14.