"I think we were the best of two lethargic teams," Cass coach Greg Scott said. "I don't know how to explain it. It's our third game in four days."
Even though that start did not exactly please their coach, the Colonels found themselves ahead by 10 points at the break and came out of the locker room more energized.
Trey Walker scored six straight points to give Cass a 37-21 lead.
Jozelle Payne then got in on the action, scoring two baskets to make it a 41-28 game even as the Wolves tried to stay close.
"I thought Jozelle Payne stepped it up big in the second half," Scott said of the junior forward, who battled with Rome's big men on the glass and stayed active in the passing lanes.
The Colonels scored a few more points -- including a Tony Mitchell 3-pointer -- and took a 46-32 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the final quarter, Cass went up by as many as 17, with Payne hitting his team's only made free throw of the game for a 55-38 lead.
The Wolves got a John Davidson free throw and jumper to bring the game to its final margin.
While the Colonels' win Monday will not go down as their best of the season, Scott took it for what it was worth. "It's a win on an off night," he said. "You just get it and go."
Jay Stephens led Cass with a game-high 16 points, Payne added 14 and Walker scored 12.
Three Rome players -- Davidson, Larry Bulloch and Taylor Shropshire -- scored 7 points apiece to lead the Wolves.
In the first quarter, no team led by more than four points, which came as Payne lined up and knocked down a rare 3 for an 11-7 Colonels lead.
Cass led 15-11 at the end of the first.
The Colonels tallied 16 of 18 points to start the second -- an 18-2 run when factoring in Payne's basket near the end of the first -- as they more than doubled Rome's output, 29-13.
The Wolves, however, scored six unanswered points, including a 3 from Bulloch -- to make the halftime score a manageable 29-19.
With the 14-point win over Rome, Cass picked up its sixth straight win.
Scott recalled a conversation prior to his team's streak-starting victory over Woodland where coaches told players to treat each game with a playoff-like mentality. He said the team thought it could get back in the hunt for a top-five region spot, a stated goal of the Colonels.
"We felt like there were going to be some losses above us," he added. "[Since then], Creekview has been beaten [three times]. Rome has lost four games. We're still doing what we need to do.
"The region [race] is going to go down to the last week as far as teams jockey for position."
Cass (15-8, 9-4) sits in sole possession of third place with Creekview's 73-64 home loss to Woodland Monday.
The Colonels close the season out Thursday in Tunnel Hill as they face Northwest Whitfield at 7:30 p.m.
Rome 53, Lady Colonels 32
In Monday's early varsity game, the Cass girls basketball team failed to convert opportunities and watched Rome begin to pull away in the second quarter.
The Wolves, who led 8-4 after one quarter, scored 20 points in the second and grabbed a 28-11 halftime lead.
The Lady Colonels outscored the visitors in the third quarter to get within 37-24 to start the fourth quarter, but could not complete the comeback.
"Free throws and layups, that's the name of the game for us," said Cass coach Jamie Horton, whose team struggled in both areas. "We don't make 'em. We had a chance."
The Lady Colonels (4-18, 2-11) play at 6 p.m. Thursday in a road game with Northwest Whitfield.