Cadets use turnovers to rout Clovers

CLOVERDALE – The Cascade Cadets came into Cloverdale on Friday night and broke open a tight game in the second quarter to defeat the Clovers 62-30 in a girls’ high school basketball game.

The Clovers kept it close early, but a big run by the Cadets over the second and third quarters doomed the hosts to the loss.

Cascade ratcheted up its defense in the second quarter and turned several turnovers into points as the Cadets outscored the Clovers 22-7 in the period to improve to 9-10 on the season. The Clovers dropped to 2-18.

“Cascade’s really good. They are well-coached and they hurt us with their zone tonight, but I thought we really competed,” Cloverdale head coach James Wade said.

The Clovers started the game battling the Cadets to almost a draw. Cascade’s Kaylee Austin nailed a pair of three-pointers and scored eight points in the opening period to lead the Cadets, but Cloverdale’s Emily Mann did her best Caitlyn Clark impression by scoring all of the Clovers 14 points.

The senior hit from inside, the foul line and closed with a deep three-pointer to keep the Clovers within one point at the end of the quarter at 15-14.

“We came out and played well early. Emily carried us in that first quarter. She scored all of our points and we were just down one,” Wade said.

Cascade’s Liv Campbell got hot in the second quarter as she nailed three from long range and scored 11 points as the Cadets focused their defense on Mann and began to force some turnovers with their aggressive zone defense.

Amalia Haga picked up some of the slack as she scored five of her 10 points in the quarter, but the Clovers were down 37-21 at halftime as the Cadets turned defense into easy offense in the period.

The Clover offense really struggled in the third quarter as it was not able to convert a field goal, picking up just three points from the foul line. Mann converted a pair of free tosses and Haga added one, but the Cadets extended their lead to 50-24 heading into the fourth quarter.

“Cascade made some adjustments at halftime and it caused us some problems,” Wade said.

The Cadets slowly continued to extend the lead throughout the fourth quarter. The Clovers could not keep them off the boards and they got second looks and doubled up Cloverdale in the period.

Despite Haga’s four points the Clovers ended up dropping the contes 62-30 as the Cadets punctuated the game with a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Cascade was led in scoring by Kaylee Austin with 13 points, Claire Austin had 12 and Campbell chipped in with 11. Mann led the Clovers with 16 points and Haga added 10.

“We did a lot of good things tonight. We are getting ready for the tournament. I was pleased with a lot of things we did, but a loss is still a loss. We got a better tonight and that is what we are working for, getting better,” Wade said.

The Clovers will have another tough contest on Monday as they travel to Northview for a Western Indiana Conference game.

CASCADE (62) – K. Austin 4 0-0 13, C. Austin 6 0-0 12, Chittendon 3 2-3 9, Campbell 4 0-0 11, C. Smith 1 0-0 2, Guetig 0 0-0 0, Nething 0 0-0 0, Hall 3 0-0 6, Pugh 1 2-2 4, Godby 2 0-0 5, S. Smith 0 0-0 0, Harshbarger 0 0-0 0, 62 TP.

CLOVERDALE (30) – Haga 4 1-1 10, Lee 0 0-0 0, Mann 4 7-9 16, Ford 0 0-0 0, Nichols 0 0-0 0, McSwine 1 0-0 2, Halloran 0 2-2 2, Watkins 0 0-0 0. 30 TP.

3-point shooting – Cascade 8 (K. Austin 3, Chittendon 1, Campbell 3, Godby 1), Cloverdale 2 (Haga 1, Mann 1).