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Davis, McElroy spark Cascade comeback win against Grundy Co.

By CHRIS SIERS ~ sports@t-g.com
Posted 2/7/23

BELL BUCKLE — Playing the same team in back-to-back nights is never easy. From the opening tip-off on Monday night, the Cascade Champions found themselves in a dogfight against visiting Grundy …

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Davis, McElroy spark Cascade comeback win against Grundy Co.

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BELL BUCKLE — Playing the same team in back-to-back nights is never easy.
From the opening tip-off on Monday night, the Cascade Champions found themselves in a dogfight against visiting Grundy County, after just defeating the Yellow Jackets three days prior.
While it wasn’t the start Champion coach Chris Lawson wanted from his team, the end result had the Cascade head coach plenty pleased as Cascade (22-4, 5-0) rallied from an eight-point, first-quarter deficit to a 72-57 district win on Monday night.
“I told the guys before the game that it wasn’t going to be easy and not to expect it to be easy. And it wasn’t,” Lawson said.
“Grundy County is a good ball team. They can score the basketball. They scored and made it tough on us.
But I felt good about our guys. Give our guys credit—they weathered the storm and we were able to get through that.”
Grundy County (16-8, 3-2) came out firing on all cylinders and was lights out from the perimeter, knocking down four treys as part of an 18-point first quarter.
Cascade on the other hand, struggled to get shots to fall in the opening quarter, but was able to close the gap by the end of the first eight minutes.
Trailing 18-10, Jackson Davis let a near-half-court shot fly at the buzzer and drew the foul, then promptly hit all three ensuing free throws to make it an 18-13 game heading to the second period.
While senior Lucas Clanton struggled to get shots to fall in the first half, it was Davis who answered the bell in the second quarter.
As a team, Cascade rallied for 19 points in the quarter and it was Davis who was red-hot from the arc, knocking down three treys in the quarter as part of his 12-points.
Senior Jayden Gulick also connected on a three-pointer in the period as well.
By halftime, Cascade rallied to a 32-27 lead.
But every time Cascade would get what felt like a comfortable lead, Grundy answered with a three-pointer.
“That’s what they do. They shoot a bunch of three’s. I got on our guys a little bit because we would score and then we would come down and look up and they have a guy wide open. They would throw it to him and he’s getting a wide open shot. Give them credit, they made those shots. For us, we didn’t do a good job at matching up in transition,” Lawson said.
Even though the Yellow Jackets outscored Cascade 18-16 in the third, Cascade put a clamp down on the Grundy County offense in the fourth quarter.
And while he didn’t manage a three-pointer on Monday, Clanton rallied and was able to add 17 total points, with 15 coming in the second half.
In the fourth quarter, Cascade was able to draw a handful of fouls and cashed in to the tune of a 9-of-11 effort in the second half from the charity stripe.
Needing to combat Grundy County’s size and length, Lawson turned to Isaac McElroy off the bench, who gave Cascade a spark in the low post.
“He (McElroy) is very, very skilled. If he can finish inside, that gives us an added post player,” Lawson said.
While Davis was able to pile on 26 points to go with Clanton’s 17, it was a defensive lockdown in the second quarter that allowed the Champs to take a lead they never gave up.
Grundy County’s Isaac Campbell hit a basket with 5:48 left in the first half and through the remainder of the quarter, the Yellow Jackets managed a single shot—a basket by Sam Parson with less than three minutes to go in the half.
While Davis was able to find his rhythm in scoring, Lawson said the sheer depth of his roster has been what the Champs have hung their hat on all season long.
“That’s kind of been our M.O. all year. Those are our two leading scorers. Lucas is averaging about 19 or 20 a game and Jackson is averaging about 15 a game,” he said.
“At the same time, Jayden Gulick can go off for 20 or 25, Thomas Gentry can go off 25 or 30, Saebyn Burris can score 20—we’ve got other guys that are capable and that’s what we’ve had. We’ve had guys step up in the absence of Lucas Clanton or somebody and produce.”
Cascade steps out of district play on Tuesday night and travels to Franklin County, before closing the regular season on Friday night at Forrest.
While Tuesday’s game doesn’t impact the overall district standings, Lawson said his team is playing with a lot of pride of finishing an unbeaten regular season, aside from a handful of games in Christmas tournaments.
“I think we’re playing our best basketball right now, which is a good time to be playing well. Franklin County tomorrow isn’t a district game, but it is an important game. We haven’t lost a regular season game all year. We did get beat in the Christmas tournament, but our guys take a lot of pride in that. We want to finish the regular season with no losses,” he said.
Lawson also feels that playing the final regular season game on Friday night at Forrest is a plus for the Champs, since the District 7-AA tournament will be hosted in Chapel Hill.
“I do like the fact we get to finish at Chapel Hill and turn around and play in that gym in the district tournament,” he said.

Grundy Co. 18 9 18 12 — 57
Cascade 13 19 16 24 — 72

Grundy Co.: Sam Parson 21, Alex Parson 11, Brendan Marsh 10, Jr. Crisp 8, Isaac Campbell 7.
Cascade: Jackson Davis 26, Lucas Clanton 17, Isaac McElroy 10, Thomas Gentry 10, Jayden Gulick 6, Saebyn Burris 3.
3-Point goals: Grundy Co. (10): A. Parson 3, S. Parson 2, Crisp 2, Marsh 2, Campbell; Cascade (8): Davis 4, Gulick 2, Gentry 2.
Halftime score: Cascade 32, Grundy Co. 27.