Cascade brushes past South Hamilton, 56-40

DES MOINES - After 45 years and nearly 700 victories, it's moments like this that keep bringing Al Marshall back to the gym."You cherish it, and you really cherish it for the kids," Marshall said, after his Cascade Cougars ousted South Hamilton, 56-40, in a Class 2A state basketball tournament quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena.For specificity, this was win number 694 for the legendary coach, one that moves Cascade (22-3) to the semifinals Thursday afternoon opposite top-ranked Western Christian. It was so Marshall-like: a patient offense and extending 2-3 zone defense wearing down the opponent.The coach didn't want credit for any of it."One of the things that has kind of happened with this is some of the papers have talked only about me in a sense," Marshall said. "How many wins I've got, how this guy has been here this long. I told (the kids) one day after an interview, a story that wasn't printed, yet, but that I thought was going to be all about me, that's it's not about me. This is about you, this is your team. I didn't get any rebounds, I didn't make any 3-point shots, I didn't do any of that stuff. I might have chewed them out once in awhile ... but it's their team."A good team. It was 32-32 late in the third quarter when Cascade center Devin Green picked up his fourth foul and was sent to the bench.Trouble seemed imminent, but by the time the 6-foot-6 sophomore finally came back in, his club was ahead by 10 points. Credit everyone, including Green's replacement Nolan Weber for the game-deciding run."We had to fight through that," said Haris Takes, whose 24 points were a game high. "Nolan was doing great on the defensive end for him. He was getting rebounds for us. He kept us in the game pretty much. Then we knocked down free throws. That was the game right there."Cascade hit 22 of 29 from the stripe and held South Hamilton to 29.8-percent shooting. That included 3 of 20 from the 3-point line.When a perimeter-based team can't make its perimeter shots, it's in trouble."Defensively we executed great," said Cascade's Mitch Recker. "We knew what shooters we had to get on.""They did a great job closing out defensively," said South Hamilton Coach B.J. Terrones. "There was a hand in our face with most of our shots."Recker was clutch offensively, too, with eight of his 12 points coming after Green's fourth foul. Ries Rausch didn't score until the fourth but finished with seven points, including a huge corner trey."Means everything," Recker said. "Two more games guaranteed. It'll be fun.""I know I'm well past my sell-by date as a coach," Marshall said. "So I think you cherish this more because you wonder 'How many more are there?'"Here is the game boxscore:

Cascade by

Jeff Johnson