Al Marshall coaches on, as Cascade beats Monticello in Class 2A district final

DUBUQUE - Al Marshall is going to the boys' state basketball tournament next month. One more win, and he can take his team with him.

The legendary head coach saw his team score the first eight points Tuesday night and never trail in a 62-57 victory over Monticello in a Class 2A district final between ranked teams at Wahlert High School.

Marshall, 69, is retiring whenever this season comes to a conclusion. He's being officially inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association's Basketball Hall of Fame, so he'll be in Des Moines the second week of March.

It'd be the old storybook ending if his Cougars (19-3) can join him. Appropriately, they'll play bitter rival Dyersville Beckman (16-7) in a substate final Saturday night at 7 at Dubuque Senior.

Cascade won the regular-season meeting.

'He hasn't talked about retirement much, really, toward the end of the year,” said Cascade star Devin Green. 'He doesn't like a lot of the attention. He told us the beginning of the year that this was his senior year, too. So we're going to treat it as such and get wins for him here in the postseason.” Marshall is 734-326 in his 47-year head coaching career. He has guided six Cascade teams to state but never won it all, his best finish coming in 2001 (third).

'We live day to day, especially at my age,” he said. 'We're just focused on helping these guys have a good end to their season.”

Cascade and Monticello (17-6) came in ranked eighth and sixth, respectively, by The Gazette and split two regular-season games, Monti winning by 14 points a week and a half ago. But the Cougars were the offensive aggressors early, and that turned out to be huge.

Green is headed to Division II Sioux Falls and easily is Cascade's best player. But it was the other guys in the Cougars' lineup who stepped up and made Monticello pay for constant double and triple-teaming of the 6-foot-7 senior center.

Trace Hoffman finished with three 3-pointers and 17 points, while unheralded guard Kurt Trumm doubled his season average with 13 points. Green still got his, leading the way with 19 points and 14 rebounds, half of his team's total there.

'That start was huge for us because it gave us confidence we could just play our game the rest of the way,” Hoffman said.

'I thought we played really well,” Green said. 'We started the game with a lot of aggressivenes. We were attacking the basket, getting our looks from the outside. But it really started with our defense. We didn't give them decent looks at the beginning, and that really snowballed. We got up, were able to get a little bit of a lead there in the first half.”

The lead eventually grew to as many as 15 in the third quarter, though Monticello didn't leave the premesis without a fight, using full-court pressure defense to somehow get within three, 60-57, with 11.5 seconds left. Cascade nearly turned the ball over after a timeout there, too, but Hoffman ended up being fouled and made two free throws for the final margin.

'We got in that hole, and I thought we got a little passive,” said Monticello Coach Tim Lambert. 'We led 2A in defensive average, and you can't go out and give up 32 in the first half when your defensive average is in the low 40s. We gave up 40 in the game the other night against them and 32 in the first half here. It's awfully hard to beat them like that.”

Derek Manternach led the Panthers with 15 points, with his twin brother, Matt, adding 14. Lambert broke up when asked what his five senior starters and eight-player senior class meant to him.

Monticello won 38 games the past two seasons.

'They've had incredible careers in a lot of sports at our school, and I'm just heartbroken I didn't get them to the place they deserved,” he said. 'I'm heartbroken I didn't get them down there (to the state tournament). I really am. It's devastating. They're like our kids. That's all.”

------------------------

AT DUBUQUE WAHLERT MONTICELLO (57): Mason Newhard 4-6 3-5 11, Jesse Iben 2-11 0-0 6, Derek Manternach 5-12 1-2 15, Matt Manternach 3-9 6-7 14, Tyler McDonald 4-8 3-3 11, Andy Tjaden 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Manternach 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-46 13-17 57.

CASCADE (62): John Supple 1-6 0-1 3, Devin Green 8-13 3-4 19, Trace Hoffman 4-6 6-6 17, Jarrett Knepper 2-6 5-6 10, Kurt Trumm 4-10 5-7 13, Gannon O'Brien 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-41 19-24 62.

Halftime - Cascade 32, Monticello 21. 3-point goals - Monticello 8-22 (Newhard 0-2, D. Manternach 4-8, M. Manternach 2-5, Iben 2-7), Cascade 5-11 (Supple 1-1, Hoffman 3-4, Knepper 1-3). Rebounds - Monticello 223 (D. Manternach 5), Cascade 28 (Green 14). Turnovers - Monticello 9, Cascade 10.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com