By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
PHILOMATH, Ore.- The Cascade Girls Basketball team had a gauntlet the past two games taking on the number one and two teams in 4A with Stayton and Philomath.
But it’s a good learning experience. Especially with the playoffs right around the corner for the Cougars to be able to have seen that and used that over these next three games to improve upon their aspirations of theirs to return to the 4A Final Site in Forest Grove in March.
And for much of Tuesday’s game against the Warriors, they were in it too coming off of their 59-29 defeat to Stayton last Tuesday. Cascade worked around Philomath’s size and length for much of the game. The Warriors won the rebounding and turnover battle with that size and length; but the Cougars used their athleticism and speed to counterbalanced that
Cascade led 11-6 after one and withstood Philomath’s second quarter run to lead 16-15 at the halftime break. The two teams, both ranked inside the Top 5 in the 4A Classification respectively entering the game, were still in a one point dogfight going into the fourth quarter with the Warriors leading 21-20.
“Today was a good game. We grinded all the way until the fourth quarter. It’s at their place, great crowd, it’s a great venue, you know it’s going to be loud, you know it’s going to be a fun one,” starts Cascade Head Coach Nick Randall. “We knew it was going to be a battle. We got to execute a little bit better. That’s probably our biggest takeaway, we got tested, and now we got to take the next three games and really tighten up our stuff so that we’re ready to go for the playoffs,”
The Warriors found that extra gear first in the fourth quarter as they began to clamp down on the Cougars, they extended their lead to six with two minutes remaining and the Philomath defense helped the hometown Warriors closed out the victory.
“Sometimes the shots don’t go in when we get some shots. But I told my girls to keep their heads up. That’s the number two team in State. Their girls played well tonight. They finished well, and we knew it was going to be that tough. Us and Stayton. Us and Philomath, all three of us are on top of our game right now, and it’s rough that we’re all in the same league,” said Randall.
Cascade won’t have much time to think about this game as they’ll have a game on Wednesday against Newport before closing out the week against North Marion. Both games are at home for the Cougars.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
