MILL CREEK — The Cascade boys basketball team received a No. 3 ranking among Class 4A teams this week in the season’s first state poll, which is a pretty big deal for the Bruins.
But on Thursday night Cascade pulled off perhaps an even bigger feat, beating Jackson for the first time in well over a decade. The Bruins shrugged off a sluggish start to build a big lead through three quarters and then hung on through a rag-tag fourth quarter for a 66-54 victory in a first-place Wesco 4A showdown.
Senior guard Drew Magaoay scored 27 points and senior center Isaiah Gotell added 15 as Cascade improved to 5-0 in conference and 11-0 overall while getting the team’s first win against Jackson in Steve Johnson’s tenure as Timberwolves coach. Johnson is in his 14th season.
“This is a big win,” Bruins coach Darrell McNeal said. “Like I told our boys coming in, we’re the underdogs. Jackson was supposed to be down last year, but they won the league and they won districts … so it was important that we could play with them and compete with them and be successful.
“They’ve been the top dogs (in Wesco) and I told our guys, ‘We haven’t proven anything until we can compete with these guys and get some wins against them.’ And that came tonight.”
“This is one we really wanted,” Cascade senior forward Brennen Hancock added. “In front of all their fans … to send a statement.” Of course, given that all the Bruins were in preschool the last time Cascade defeated the T-wolves, “it was about time,” he added with a grin.
The Bruins started slowly, getting two free throws and then a turnover, two missed free throws and an airball on their first four possessions. They followed that stretch with several missed layins to trail 12-4 five minutes into the game.
But Cascade finally got untracked, and it was Hancock who sank a desperation shot from the right corner as time expired in the first period for a 14-14 tie. That basket started a 16-3 scoring burst that lifted the Bruins to a lead they never lost.
In the third quarter Cascade ran off eight straight points to go on top 40-24, and the margin never fell to single digits again. The big lead was 17 points through three quarters and then on three occasions early in the fourth quarter, though Jackson managed to trim the final deficit to 12.
One statistic was particularly telling. The Bruins dominated the area around the basket, scoring 18 field goals on layins or offensive rebounds. Jackson had just two layins and one offensive putback.
“(The Bruins) were fired up and we knew they would be,” Johnson said. “Both teams were 4-0 (in league) and there were (lots of) people in the stands, so it was the kind of game that we’ve had go our way with in the last several years. To have it go the other way is certainly disappointing. But like I told the kids, it’s a long process and a long season, and we can’t let one game be too much.
“We certainly didn’t play well enough to win,” he said. “They played better than we did. … But I think we can play better, and hopefully we’ll have the mentality that we’ve always had here, that you have to get better as the season goes along.”
As for the Bruins, McNeal wants his players to enjoy the state ranking, but also to not lose focus on the team’s greater goals.
“The bottom line for me,” he explained, “is that it doesn’t matter what the rating is. It’s a great honor to be ranked, but we have to continue to prove ourselves night in and night out, and that has nothing to do with a ranking. It has everything to do with the fact that we have a goal towards the end of the season _ to stay healthy, to play well in districts and to be able to advance.
“We have some team goals and they’re far more important than a ranking. The ranking, all it means is that you’re a bigger target for everyone and you get everybody’s best.”
At Jackson H.S.
Cascade 14 18 16 18 —66
Jackson 14 10 7 23 —54
Cascade—Trevon Blackmon 8, Drew Magaoay 27, D’Andre Bryant 0, Cameron McGrath 9, Muhammed Kolly 0, Brennen Hancock 7, Isaiah Gotell 15. Jackson—Brian Brown 17, Parker Manalo 0, Ian Willgress 0, Jordan Brajcich 5, Connor Marschall 1, Avery Goodwin 2, Sam Saufferer 21, Colton Faddis 8.
Records—Cascade 5-0 league, 11-0 overall; Jackson 4-1, 7-4.
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