WARTRACE, TN – The Cascade Lady Champions swiped 17 steals in Tuesday night’s home-opening win against the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs, 56-35.

Cornersville, coming off a 25+ win season a year ago, was led by Ady Gentry with 16 points, and she was the only Lady Dawg to finish in double figures. Faithe Eguia finished as their second leading scorer with seven points.

Meanwhile, for Cascade, Kaegan Young led the way with 14 points along with four steals and a pair of rejections defensively. Laina Carter got her senior started off on the right foot, finishing as Cascade’s other double-digit scorer with 12 points. Sophie Ray and Kaydence Miller both finished with eight points as well. 

Laina Carter (1) finished with 12 points against Cornersville.

Playing without key returner Suzanna Crews for likely the remainder of 2024, it was the three newcomers that helped set the tone for the Lady Champions. Moore County transfer Caroline Parker and freshmen Lexi Comstock and Lizzie Keele add depth that third-year Head Coach Janie Demonbreum hasn’t had before in her stint at Cascade, and that depth took over in the second quarter.

Cascade held a 12-8 lead at the end of the opening period as they worked to settle down the opening night nerves. Demonbreum went to a 2-2-1 full court press as the quarter progressed, and kept it up for most of the rest of the game. Cornersville looked rushed and sped up, ending the first quarter with six live ball turnovers that led to easy fastbreak buckets for the hosts.  

In the second quarter, the Lady Champs settled down and outscored Cornersville 18-6 to take a 30-14 lead into the halftime locker room. Kaydence Miller hit a pair of threes to help jump-start the half court offense along with Sophie Ray and Kaegan Young, who finished the first half with eight and nine points respectively, while stepping up the defensive intensity. Comstock and Keele brought an exuberant energy to the front of Cascade’s press, and Cornersville could never get comfortable offensively. 

In the second half, the Lady Dawgs finally began to settle down, but in the third quarter they were still outscored 17-11 as Laina Carter led the way with seven points in the period to take a commanding 45-27 lead into the final frame. 

Cascade got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter, allowing Cornersville to get within as close as 13 points, but it was ultimately too little too late for the visitors. Caroline Parker went 5/6 from the free throw line in the quarter to help salt the game away, and Cascade pulled away in the final minutes to seal an impressive opening night victory, 56-35.

Cornersville falls to 0-1 and will travel to Chapel Hill on Friday night.

Cascade improves to 1-0 and will travel to Huntland on Thursday night, LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 starting at 5:45 p.m.