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Tale of two halves for Lady Champs in semis

By WILL CARTER ~ Sports Writer
Posted 2/20/23

CHAPEL HILL — After a back-and-forth first half that resulted in a tie game heading into the break, the Cascade Lady Champions (2-24) couldn’t contain the Forrest Lady Rockets (10-14) …

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Tale of two halves for Lady Champs in semis

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CHAPEL HILL — After a back-and-forth first half that resulted in a tie game heading into the break, the Cascade Lady Champions (2-24) couldn’t contain the Forrest Lady Rockets (10-14) offensive attack for the final two quarters and the hosts ran away with a 47-28 victory in the District 7-AA semifinals. 
With a rotation of only six to seven players throughout most of the season, fatigue played a key role in the loss. 
“Our conditioning was a factor in the second half,” Lady Champs head coach Janie Demonbreum said. “I think we poured ourselves into the first half, and I could see us getting winded later in the game. We’re only playing six or seven girls, so it gets tough later in the season.”
It took a minute and a half for either squad to put points on the board after a couple defensive stops, but the Lady Rockets struck first with a Macyn Kirby layup which sparked a 6-3 run in their favor. 
But the Lady Champs answered with a 6-0 run over the final three minutes of the quarter to take a 9-6 lead into the second quarter behind strong efforts from Sophie Ray and Kaegan Young. 
Suzanna Crews added to Cascade’s lead with a corner jump shot 10 seconds into the second frame to take an 11-6 lead. 
Three minutes later Anna Clanton got a steal on Forrest’s end of the floor and passed it to Kaydence Miller for a transition layup to extend their lead to seven. 
The Lady Champs held Forrest scoreless from the three-minute mark of the first quarter until the 2:55 mark of the second quarter when Megan Mealer knocked down the first three-pointer of the game for her squad. 
Mealer’s three-pointer sparked a 7-0 Lady Rockets run over the final minutes of the first half to tie the game at 13-13. 
Much of Cascade’s success in the first half came on the defensive end by throwing different looks at the Lady Rockets with a focus on limiting Kinslee Inlow’s production, who was scoreless in the first half. 
“We were bouncing between a box-and-one and a triangle-and-two with a focus on shutting down Kinslee Inlow since she had two big games against us in the regular season,” Demonbreum said. “She didn’t score until the fourth, so we were successful with that.”
Forrest opened the scoring in the second half with another three-pointer from Mealer to take their first lead since the opening quarter. 
Ray answered back a minute later with a layup to make it 16-15 with under six minutes to go in the third, but the Lady Rockets found their rhythm after Kirby knocked down back-to-back threes to spark a 17-6 run over the final five minutes of the frame. 
Kirby accounted for nine points on three-pointers in the quarter, and Forrest went into the fourth quarter with a 33-21 lead. 
“They couldn’t find their rhythm in the first half, but they came out of the locker room and got hot,” Demonbreum said. “They’re probably the most consistent three-point shooters in the district in my opinion.”
Kirby added three more points to her game-high total of 19 with an and-one layup in the first minute of the final frame. 
As fatigue started to wear on the Lady Champs, the Lady Rockets outscored them 14-7 in the final eight minutes to secure the victory and a shot at the district championship. 
Cascade will meet Grundy County in the consolation game on Monday night at Forrest High School in a fight for better seeding in the region tournament.
“It will be a good game on Monday night against Grundy County,” Demonbreum said. “They’ll come out hot and look to beat us again. Hopefully our girls will come out with even more fire than they’ve had all year, and we can win it.”

Forrest 6 7 20 14 — 47
Cascade 9 4 8 7 — 28

Forrest: Macyn Kirby 19, Kinslee Inlow 9, Megan Mealer 6, Carli Warner 6, Kaylin Pope 5, Samantha Hopkins 2. 
Cascade: Sophie Ray 12, Suzanna Crews 4, Kaegan Young 4, Kaydence Bynum 3, Laina Carter 3, Kaydence Miller 2. 
3-point goals: Forrest (5): Kirby 3, Mealer 2.; Cascade (2): Bynum, Carter.
Halftime score: Forrest 13, Cascade 13.