Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Cookeville Lady Cavs are 23-0 after taking down Green Hill in Mt. Juliet on Friday 57-24.
While both teams battled to start, the Lady Cavs took control of the game and ended the quarter with a 20-10 lead after Cassie Gallagher knocked down a three to beat the buzzer.
The Lady Cavs’ defense showed up in a big way in the second quarter, as they held the home team to a mere six points and outscored the Lady Hawks 18-6 to take a 38-16 lead into the locker room.
The defense was even stingier in the third, holding GHHS to just four points. That added up to a 52-20 lead heading into the fourth, allowing the Lady Cavs to cruise to the 33-point victory.
Gallagher led the way with 13 points for Cookeville, while K.K. Graves and Chay Cunningham added 12 points apiece for head coach Jamie Gillies.
“Our defense has been good all season honestly, and we work on it every day,” Gillies said. “We wanted to come out and make sure we were putting pressure on the ball…I feel like we did a good job.”
The Lady Cavs went on an 18-2 run in the first half to take full control of the scoreboard, something Gillies attributes to her team’s unselfishness and willingness to make the extra pass.
“This team is so good at finding the open player and making the extra pass,” Gillies said. “They’re so unselfish, so it was a lot of getting the rebound, pushing it and finding the open man, and we made some big shots…we shoot like that, we’re pretty tough.”
The Cavaliers trailed by only seven at the break, but struggled offensively in the second half of their 63-43 loss to Green Hill.
The Cavaliers got off to a good start early, as they held an 18-15 lead before Green Hill knocked down a three at the buzzer to knot the score heading into the second. The Hawks pushed the lead to near-double digits in the second before Cookeville cut the lead down to just 37-32.
Another shot at the buzzer extended the lead back to 39-32 at the halftime break for GHHS.
The third quarter saw the beginning of the Cavaliers’ struggles on offense, as they only scored six points and ended the frame trailing 51-38. Things didn’t get better in the fourth, with CHS only managing five points and falling to Green Hill 63-43.
Josh Heard paced the team with 19 points, while Jalen Heard added 11 off the bench for head coach Josh Heard.
“They get up on you and guard you hard, and we had no energy on defense whatsoever,” Heard said. “We had no heart on defense. The stuff they did, we knew it was coming. We had no heart to get out and do what we talked about in practice…that’s what’s disheartening. Obviously this game meant more to the coaches than it did to the players tonight, because they can say they wanted to win, but talking is cheap.”
There was life in the second quarter when the team fell behind and fought back into the game, but as Heard was quick to point out, it’s hard to win when you score as little as they did in the second half.
“We made shots, we had some kids come off the bench and make threes,” Heard said. “Scoring five points in one quarter and six in another quarter…that’s not going to beat anybody. That wouldn’t even beat a middle school team. We’ve got to find some heart on defense every single game.”
CHS will be back in action on Tuesday when they head to Lebanon to take on the Blue Devils starting at 6 P.M.
