Following a slow start on the offensive end of the court and trialing by 10-0 early, the Cascade Lady Champions battled back against Fayetteville City Lady Tigers and at two different points in the fourth quarter, held a slim lead over the visitors.
But an inconsistent night shooting eventually proved costly as Fayetteville was able to pull away in the closing minutes to take a 44-36 win over the Lady Champs.
“We had a slow start offensively. I think they were up 9-0 before we finally connected. Once we did, we started rolling,” Lady Champion coach Kendall Hampton said.
Fayetteville burst out of the gates on a 9-0 run before Annabelle Calvert finally ended the scoring drought with a 3-pointer with 1:36 left in the opening frame.
A second basket by Maribel de la Rosa 25 seconds later cut the Fayetteville lead in half.
The Lady Tigers capitalized off Cascade turnovers early and worked the ball in transition to build the early lead.
Cascade kept it rolling into the second quarter, despite some early foul trouble and following a 3-pointer by Jordan Green with 6:57 left in the first half, Cascade trailed by just six points.
“ We got in foul trouble a little early. We put them on the line with 26 opportunities. They hit foul shots well as a team. When you get to the tail end of a game when it’s close, that’s not what you want. But even at the end, we had three opportunities to connect and just couldn’t get it in the basket today,” Hampton said.
Even facing a seven-point deficit at the half, Cascade outscored Fayetteville 13-5 in the third quarter and a Caroline Stone bucket with 15 seconds left gave the Lady Champs a 28-27 lead heading to the fourth.
The two teams swapped control of the scoreboard five more times into the fourth quarter before a basket at the 3:30 mark put the Lady Tigers up for good.
With fouls continuing to become an issue, Fayetteville was sent to the line and made good on 9-of-15 tries in the second half.
Coupled with good looks not falling for Cascade, Fayetteville was able to coast to the eight-point victory.
“I think it was shot just not falling. We had good shots, too. We just couldn’t connect. Inside-outside, foul shots, you name it. Today we put together four quarters, we played hard, we hustled and our defense definitely created our offense. To be able to stay in the game the whole time was a great effort by the players,” Hampton said.
Green led the Lady Champs with 12 points, while Caroline Stone added nine.
Cascade hopes to bounce back with another home game on Friday evening against Watertown at 6 p.m.

Fayetteville 16    6    5  17 — 44
Cascade  5  10  13    8 — 36

Fayetteville: Autumn Nunamaker 10, Amaria Thomison 8, Shaneka Nance 7, Gracie Hoagland 6, Isabella Martin 5, Elexis Humphrey 4, Hannah Griffin 2.
Cascade: Jordan Green 12, Caroline Stone 9, Annabelle Calvert 6, Lani Jones 5, Maribel de la Rosa 4.
3-Point goals: Cascade (3): Calvert 2, Green; Fayetteville (1): Martin.
Halftime score: Fayetteville 22, Cascade 15.