Cass reaches finals with win over Constantine

Published 9:18 am Wednesday, November 22, 2006

By By TOM NYHUIS / Edwardsburg Argus
CONSTANTINE – After a slow start, the Cassopolis girls' basketball team took command of the Wednesday's Class C District semifinal game against tournament host Constantine.
When the final seconds had clicked off the clock, the Rangers had worked their way to a 44-27 win.
Both teams found it difficult to score early on as the game was tied at three with 2:35 to play in the opening quarter. The Rangers finished the quarter with a 9-0 run to lead 12-3 heading into the second quarter.
"We have been playing up and down all year," Cassopolis coach Floyd Foston said. "Not to take anything away from Constantine, I thought they had a great year, they won a lot of ball games. We kind of play to the level of competition. I want us to come and focus and play hard for 32 minutes. We kind of pick it up and turn it down and tonight I think we did that on a couple of those runs."
The Rangers went on to post a 22-5 lead midway through the second quarter. Up to that point, the Falcons continued to find it difficult to get the ball to drop. Cassopolis controlled the boards off the missed shots to limit the Falcons to just one shot on each trip down the floor.
"We felt if we stopped their dribble penetration we could contain them," Falcons coach Mark Bradford said. "We wanted to slow them down, we knew we weren't going to stop them but we wanted to try to force them to beat us on the outside. We did a nice job but then we lost that a little bit and started to let them get back into the lanes for some easy baskets. We called that time out and stopped them for the next four and a half minutes."
The Falcons scored the final seven points in the second quarter to go in at the break down 10, 22-12.
Starting the second half, Cassopolis put the heat back on the Falcons building their lead back to 18, 37-19, with a minute remaining in the third quarter.
The Ranger shot 35 percent (15-of-42) from the field while the Falcons could only manage 25 percent shooting (8-of-32). Cassopolis also controlled the boards, out rebounding Constantine 36-19.
Leading the Rangers was Michelle James with 18 points, while Dee Dee Hawkins scored 10.
Andria Baker led the Falcons led her team with 10 points.
CASSOPOLIS 44
Dee Dee Hawkins 4 2-5 10, Tiffany Williams 1 0-0 2, Tiara Williams 2 2-4 6, Nikitas Nelson 1 2-5 4, Michelle James 6 6-10 18, Becky File 0 0-0 0, Kia Luckey 1 0-0 2, Kenyah House 0 2-2 2, Robin Danzy 0 0-0 0, Taletha Andrews 0 0-0 0, Shavone Allen 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 14-26 44
CONSTANTINE 27
Ashley Alexander 1 2-5 4, Jacq Krull 1 0-0 2, Brooke Longcore 0 0-2 0, Emilee Komins 2 2-6 6, Andria Baker 3 4-5 10, Leslie Mrozek 0 0-0 0, Megan Niblock 0 3-4 3, Megan Erbes 0 0-2 0, Morgan Balcom 0 0-2 0, Stephanie Schutter 1 0-0 2, Brigette Casselman 0 0-0 0. Totals: 8 11-26 27
Cassopolis 12 22 37 44
Constantine 3 12 21 27
3-point baskets: None. Total fouls: Cassopolis 21, Constantine 17. Fouled out: None. Record: Cassopolis 16-5
389- Taira Willams, #22 Andria Baker and #40 Jacq Krull