Douglass scores 30, helps rested Caston girls rout Tri-County

Colvin adds 3 treys, scores 13

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Madi Douglass Grace Colvin

FULTON — After playing seven straight games away from home, the Caston girls basketball team played their first home game in five weeks Thursday.

Refreshed after taking two days off, they came back to trounce Tri-County 57-33 behind Madi Douglass’ 30 points, six rebounds and seven steals and 13 points from Grace Colvin. Allison Craig added five points and six rebounds.

Caston improved to 8-10 while snapping a six-game losing streak. Eight of their losses are to teams with winning records.

Junior guard Gracie Scheitlin came off the bench to lead Tri-County with 13, and Evalynn Ross added 11.

Only once this season has Tri-County (12-4) scored fewer than 33 points in a game, but Caston put an end to the Lady Cavaliers’ seven-game winning streak with their 2-3 zone. Tri-County just played Seeger Tuesday while Caston rested following a 17-point loss at Culver last week.

“We took two days off, and we’ve only practiced about one time,” Caston coach Josh Douglass said of the rest. “We needed it. After that Culver game, you go back and watch the film, we had a lot of shots that second half that just didn’t fall, and you can tell it wasn’t lack of effort. We were playing hard. We just needed a break.”

Caston scored the first 10 points of the game on two Colvin 3-pointers – coach Douglass said she hit “six or seven” 3-pointers in a row at practice Wednesday – and four Douglass free throws, and they never trailed. They led by as many as 32 points in the fourth quarter, and Douglass even came out to a round of applause with 2:08 left.

The teams could meet again in Class 1A, Sectional 50, which North White will host from Feb. 3-7. Caston beat Tri-County in the sectional final two years ago. Tri-County is the defending sectional champion.

Caston also scored the first 10 points of the second half on a Douglass 3 from the left wing, a Douglass step-through floater in the lane between defenders, a Douglass steal and coast to coast layup and a Colvin 3-pointer off a Douglass assist.

That extended the lead to 39-13.

“Honestly, it was just great to be back at home,” Madi Douglass said. “We haven’t played at home since Judson, and I think that was on Dec. 11. So it was just great to play at home, and I think for her, seeing those shots go in really helped her get to a good start in the game, and it was like, alright, we’re here, we’re ready to play, let’s get this show on the road.”

Tri-County started in their own 2-3 zone, but Colvin hit two open treys – one from the left wing and one from the right wing – in the first four minutes.

Tri-County would eventually switch to a man-to-man and would cut the margin to a 12-3 on a 3-point play from Ross with 2:26 left in the quarter.

But Tri-County could not contain Madi Douglass off the dribble. She hit a pullup 15-footer and a driving layup to bump the lead to 16-6 after one quarter.

She drove left baseline for the first basket of the second quarter. A Douglass putback and a driving transition layup as she was fouled made it 22-8.

“She notices she’s quicker than that girl and can get that step,” coach Douglass said of Madi Douglass’ reaction when Tri-County went to a man-to-man. “I mean, why not? She can go finish around the basket with the toughest of them around here, and she can finish through contact and things like that. When (opponents) go man, our objective is to spread teams out because with Grace and Madi and the ability to handle the ball like they can, we had a beautiful back door play that we set up where they hit each other … There’s just lots of things we can do in man.”

So Tri-County went back to the zone.

Scheitlin hit a runner in the lane, but Craig scored on a drop-step move in the post, and Gigi Berry found Adyson Steininger for a 3 from just to the right of the top of the key to make it 27-10.

Caston knows that just because they won this game will not guarantee them anything in case of a sectional rematch. Still, it’s good for their confidence, according to Madi Douglass.

“Personally, since my freshman year, I’ve always kind of had this thing where I like to beat Tri-County,” Madi Douglass said. “Last year, they really handed it to us on their home court (a 45-17 loss on Jan. 16, 2025), so it’s a good win for us, especially after coming off this losing streak that we’ve had going for us. It was a really great win for us to see, oh yeah, we can do this, and that way, when sectional time rolls around, we’re going in with a little bit of confidence, which we do know that come sectional time, that will not be the same Tri-County team we see there. … We’ll  see a team that’s locked in and ready to go.”

Caston 57, Tri-County 33

TRI-COUNTY (33) (12-4)

Grace Tyler 0 0-0 0, Grace Luck 1 0-0 3, Evalynn Ross 5 1-1 11, Madalynn Iseminger 3 0-2 6, Madysen Spencer 0 0-2 0, Gracie Scheitlin 5 1-2 13, Mackenzie Burns 0 0-0 0, Maddi Nevitt 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 14 2-7 33

CASTON (57) (8-10)

Hadlie Coffing 0 0-0 0, Camila Hernandez-Rios 0 0-0 0, Grace Colvin 5 0-0 13, Madi Douglass 12 4-6 30, Allison Craig 2 1-1 5, Ellie Zartman 0 0-0 0, Lexie Field 1 0-0 2, Natalie Warner 1 0-0 2, Adyson Steininger 1 0-0 3, Gigi Berry 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 23 5-7 57

Three-point field goals:

Tri-County 3 (Scheitlin 2, Luck),

Caston 6 (Colvin 3, Douglass 2, Steininger)

Total fouls: Tri-County 12, Caston 8

Turnovers: Tri-County 16, Caston 12

Score by quarters

Tri-County 6 7 6 14 – 33

Caston 16 13 20 8 – 57