CORNERSVILLE - The Lady Champion post players are game changers.

Even when they're not scoring the basketball, head coach Kendall Hampton knows her post players can alter the game.

That's just what landed the Lady Champs (2-12, 2-5) a 40-31 victory on Friday night at Cornersville.

"When our posts are in, it creates a lot of problems for other teams' offense. Even if they don't score a point for us, their defense is so impactful, it changes the other teams' game," she said.

Cascade was a tough defense for the Lady Bulldogs to crack, as the 2-3 zone Cascade utilized early gave Cornersville (0-14, 0-6) struggles to overcome on the offensive end of the floor.

But a second foul by Jordan Green with 1:13 left in the first quarter altered Cascade's ability to utilize the size advantage down low.

"Tonight was not a good shooting night for us. This was the first game for us that we've been able to maintain control of the game through our defense. That's really what gave us the win," Hampton said.

With a couple of fouls on Caroline Stone and Green, Cascade relied on a smaller lineup, which was able to do just enough to maintain the lead throughout the first half.

The Lady Champs opened the second half with a steal and a layup by Lani Jones, putting Cascade up 14-7 with 6:46 left in the half.

But a five-plus minute scoring drought allowed the Lady Bulldogs close the gap to just a one point lead for Cascade.

In the final seconds of the half, Jones again came through with a steal and knocked down a layup, drawing the foul in the process.

After sinking the free throw to complete the three-point play, Cascade's lead bumped to four points by the half.

The game began to turn decidedly in Cascade's favor in the third when the post players were able to get back on the floor.

Caroline stone came up with a pair of quick buckets in the third quarter and Maddie Croslin connected on a three-pointer at the 3:07 mark of the quarter to stretch Cascade's lead to nine.

Cornersville did manage to make things interesting late in the fourth quarter and cutthe Lady Champ lead to four points with less than two minutes to go.

But Stone managed a pair of baskets in the quarter and Cascade shot an efficient 7-of-10 tries at the free throw line in the quarter to hold off a Lady Bulldog rally.

Crosslin led all scorers with 13 points, including a pair of made treys.

Friday night's win marked another step in the right direction for a building Lady Champion squad, which Hampton hopes is a sign of wins coming down the road.

"I hope we can maintain that progress throughout and at the end of this, be exactly where we want to be," she said.

"Early on in our season, we relied on a few players to be the ones who got our points. Throughout the season, we've had multiple people be leading scorers in different games. They're starting to trust each other and trust it doesn't have to be all on one or two people."

Cascade will be back on the road on Tuesday at Eagleville, hoping to avenge a 64-47 defeat earlier this month.

Cascade 12 6 9 13 - 40

Cornersville 7 7 5 12 - 31

Cascade: Maddie Crosslin 15, Caroline Stone 9, Lani Jones 7, Makenna Lamb 4, Abby Littrell 3.

Cornersville: Alicia Polk 12, Abbie Woodard 6, Jayli Childress 5, Lexi Warren 5, Meri Hannah Walker 4,

3-Point goals: Cascade (2): Crosslin 2; Cornersville (1): Polk.

Halftime score: Cascade 18, Cornersville 14.