Early Cascade lead stands

     Cascade was able to make an early lead hold up, and came away with a 36-24 victory over the Monticello Panthers in a River Valley Conference girls basketball game Feb. 1 in Monticello.

     The Cougars’ outside shooting gave them an early lead, which proved to be the difference.

     Cascade made five shots from three-point range in the first quarter alone, accounting for an early 9-2 lead and a 15-7 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

     “That was a huge factor,” Monticello coach Donnie Kremer said of the Cougars’ outside shooting. “They would make a shot, and we would come down and get a good look, and miss a shot. We forced them to beat us over the top, and they did that early. After that we settled down and did a nice job of getting hands in their faces.”

     Cascade extended the lead to 26-14 by halftime, but to start the second half, Maddie Fellinger made back-to-back three-pointers for the Panthers, trimming the margin to 26-20.

     “We started to execute and make the extra pass to an open person, who knocked it down,” Kremer said. “Plus our defense was much better in the second half. We held them to two field goals in the second half.”

     One of those was a three-pointer by Nicole McDermott with about one second left in the third period, enabling the Cougars to lead 32-22 after three.

     Although Cascade was held to four points in the final quarter, Monticello scored just two in that span.

     “I thought we played very hard throughout the game,” Kremer said. “For not having any practice or prep time, we were able to execute things when we needed do. We just did not finish like we have been.”

     Fellinger finished with nine points, shooting 3-for-4 from three-point range. Jordan Kuper had five points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals.

     The Panthers are 9-6 in the River Valley Conference, 10-6 overall.

Feb. 1

Cascade  15  11  6  4 – 36

Monti         7   7   8  2 – 24

     MONTICELLO (24) – Tori McDonald 0-2 0-0 0, Maddie Fellinger 3-5 0-0 9, Sydney Hansen 2-4 0-2 4, Karli Recker 0-4 0-1 0, Jordan Kuper 2-7 1-4 5, Gabrielle Steiner 1-1 1-3 3, Carly Hayen 1-4 1-2 3, Gabrielle Guilford 0-2 0-0 0, Emily Schlarmann 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 9-29 3-12 24.

     Three-pointers: Fellinger 3.

     Rebounds: Monticello 22 (Kuper 10).

     Total fouls: Monticello 11.