Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Cookeville Cavaliers put together one of their most complete efforts of the season in a 61-52 win over Green Hill in the District 9/AAAA Semifinals.
It didn’t start out great on offense for Cookeville, as the Hawks held them to just seven first-quarter points and held a 15-7 lead when the buzzer sounded.
The Cavaliers began to find their rhythm in the second, outscoring Green Hill 19-13 to trim the deficit down to just two points at 28-26 heading into the halftime locker room.
CHS’ defense continued the roll in the third quarter, as they limited the Hawks to just 10 points into the frame en route to taking a 39-38 lead into the fourth. There, Cookeville used a 10-0 run at one point to pull away and clinch their berth in the district title game with a 61-52 win over the hosting Green Hill Hawks.
Josh Heard paced the Cavs with a game-high 18 points, while D.J. Potts-Heard added 15 points. Bennett Reeves scored 10 points of his own for head coach Josh Heard.
“Those kids fought their butts off today,” Heard said. “We had a gameplan and we stuck to it. We played hard, and made shots when we needed to…I’m proud of those boys, they did exactly what we’ve been going over the last three days.”
The previous trip to Green Hill led Heard to question his team’s desire to win. Things have changed since then, as Satruday’s result would lead you to believe, and Heard says that is due to his staff simplifying their needs for the team to accomplish its goals.
“I told them I just want them to give me the best effort in seven games,” Heard said. “I told them we’ve already played 27 games, I don’t need you to win 30 more games. I just need you to win seven…this is four of seven.”
The Cookeville Lady Cavs followed that up by winning in dominant fashion over Mt. Juliet 70-32 to move on to the district championship.
And it was dominant from the word go, as the Lady Cavs jumped out to a 24-9 lead that was powered by a 10-0 run to start the game.
They added onto the lead in the second frame, outscoring Mt. Juliet 15-8 to take a 39-17 lead into the halftime break. The third quarter saw Cookeville continue to blow the game open, as they head Mt. Juliet to just eight points in the frame.
By the time the fourth quarter arrived, CHS was cruising up 55-25 and coasted to the finish with a 38-point victory.
Cassie Gallagher paced the Lady Cavs with 12 points, while Jordan Gillies put together an 11-point, 10-assists double-double for head coach Jamie Gillies’ 100th career win.
“I’m proud of the way my kids played,” Gillies said. “It was our second game in two weeks, so sometimes it’s hard practicing for a whole week and trying to get prepared and keep you head in it, and I thought they did that.”
The hot start to the game was even more encouraging for Gillies after factoring in that her team had only played one game in two weeks leading up to this. Gillies was also quick to point out how tough Mt. Juliet played the Lady Cavs in the first half of the previous meeting, so this was quite the improvement in her eyes.
“Last time we played Mt. Juliet, they played us close in the first half,” Gillies said. “We wanted to come out and make sure we were playing (our best). We haven’t talked about any game besides this game, and now we’re talking about the next game. We’re taking it one game at a time.”
The Lady Cavs will now meet Green Hill in the district championship on Monday at 7:30 P.M. The Cavaliers will take the court on Tuesday at the same time to face Lebanon for the boys championship.
