By WILL CARTER ~ Sports Writer
In the second matchup with the Grundy County Lady Yellow Jackets, the Cascade Lady Champions kept it closer than they did on the road, but ultimately couldn’t get shots to fall in the 53-39 District 7-AA loss.
“We really played them much better than the last time, but offensively we couldn't get anything to fall,” Lady Champion head coach Kendall Hampton said.
The Lady Yellow Jackets opened up the first frame on an 8-0 run before forcing a Lady Champion timeout at the 5:04 minute-mark.
Carlee Smarrt and Wrylee McDaniel led the charge for the Lady Yellow Jackets with six points a piece in the quarter.
Both finished with 16 points on the night for Grundy County.
Lani Jones knocked down a 3-pointer a minute later to halt the run, and put the first points on the board for the Lady Champions.
Jones finished with seven points on the night.
The Lady Champions matched their first quarter total of eight in the second frame while holding the Lady Yellow Jackets to nine points.
At halftime, Grundy County held onto a seven point lead.
While Jordan Green scored all eight of her points in the first half for the Lady Champions, Caroline Stone did the opposite by scoring all but one of her points in the second half.
Stone finished with 14 points on the night.
“Against a team like tonight, there’s a mismatch with those two. They're not as big as we are, so we have a size advantage,” Hampton said.
“Going inside works when that happens, but we have to hit our foul shots.”
To go along with the struggle of hitting shots, the Lady Champions couldn’t find the net from the free-throw line, going 11-of-23 from the stripe.
Many of the misses were on the front-end of a one-and-one as Cascade reached the bonus around the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
“We missed around 16 free throws if you include the one-and-ones, and that would have won us the game,” Hampton said.
“We kept going inside and getting fouls, but we couldn't hit those foul shots. It’s an uphill battle when that happens.”
Heading into the final frame, the Lady Champions faced a 14-point deficit.
Stone accounted for eight of the Lady Champions 16 points to close out the game, but the Lady Yellow Jackets knocked down nine free throws in the quarter to close out the game.
Although the Lady Champions weren’t able to get revenge this time around, Hampton is hopeful they can use this experience to their advantage down the final stretch of the season.
“We've played everyone better the second time around, so we can use that going into this last week and into the tournament to help us.”
“We've not shot well the last few games, so hopefully we can shoot better moving forward.”
A road matchup with the Smyrna Lady Bulldogs is next up for the Lady Champions as they try to keep building towards the district tournament.
Cascade 8 8 7 16 — 39
Grundy Co. 14 9 14 15 — 53
Grundy Co.: Carlee Smartt 16, Wrylee McDaniel 16, Charlsie Campbell 7, Abigail Childers 6, Jaidys McDaniel 3, Kathrine Lusk 3, Stevie King 1.
Cascade: Caroline Stone 14, Jordan Green 8, Lani Jones 7, Mckenna Lamb 4, Annabelle Calvert 3, Abby Littrell 2, Hailey Giel 1.
3-Point goals: Grundy Co. (3): Smartt, McDaniel, Childers; Cascade (2):Jones, Calvert.
Halftime score: Grundy Co. 23, Cascade 16.
