North Cedar gets past Cascade again, returns to state tournament

This story from the Quad City Times (www.qctimes.com)

MAQUOKETA - As the North Cedar lead dwindled in the second half of the Knights' 51-46 victory over Cascade, the reaction on the Knights' bench was not one of panic.

Ironically, the Knights seemed to have the game right where they wanted it.

All season long, North Cedar has made a habit of jumping out to a big lead, only to watch its opponent fight back and force the Knights to pull the game out at the end. As the Cougars shaved what once had been a 20-5 lead to four points in the final quarter, the Knights knew they could do it again.

This time, they did it at the foul line.

North Cedar had no baskets in the final 2:25, but it didn't matter because the Knights went 13-for-16 from the charity stripe during that stretch, keeping Cascade from ever pulling ahead and earning a return ticket to the 2A state tournament in Des Moines, beating the Cougars on Saturday night at Maquoketa High School.

North Cedar faces Mount Vernon in the Class 2A state quarterfinals March 5 at 8:15 p.m. in Des Moines.

“It's a game of runs,” North Cedar coach Scott Jackson said. “Basketball is a game of three-minute runs, and whoever has the most runs at the end will probably win the game. We've been fortunate and we've been lucky. We started the game really well and then we ended the game well.”

The Knights (19-4) proved to be the exception to Jackson's statement, beating the Cougars (20-5) not by quantity of runs, but by quality.

Through the first 10:30 of the game, North Cedar was in control of the contest, jumping out to a 20-5 lead on the strength of rebounding and some hot shooting by Marshall Shedeck, who scored eight of his 13 points in the first quarter.

“My shot felt good during warmups, and we were prepared mentally for this game,” Shedeck said. “We wanted to keep the momentum going and keep adding on the points and adding to the lead.”

The Cougars had other ideas. After playing at the Knights' pace for a quarter, Cascade took control of the paint and began to chip away at North Cedar's seemingly insurmountable lead. However, the Cougars never managed to get within three points of the Knights, mainly because of the play of North Cedar star Jordan Hay.

Hay finished with 20 points, 12 coming in the second half as he kept the Knights ahead until finally fouling out with 13.6 seconds to go. By then, the Knights had a four-point lead and the ball, enough of a cushion to secure their spot in the state tournament.

“In the second half, we came out slow, but we got it done,” Hay said. “We're used to those kind of games, so we've had experience. We got it done, and it really feels amazing.”