Cashion girls get offensive in road win

Cashion’s girls avoided a losing streak - small as it may have been - with their second-highest scoring output of the season.

Three Lady Wildcats scored in double figures as they toppled Wellston 66-52 on the road last Friday night.

It was Cashion’s seventh win in eight games as it improved to 11-5. The lone loss in that stretch was last Tuesday at Class A’s top-ranked Seiling.

Cashion never pulled away from Wellston until the fourth quarter, but did outscore the Lady Tigers in each frame.

They led 30-25 at halftime, then erupted for 22 points in the third quarter.

Junior Kaitin Taylor nailed two 3-pointers and scored eight points as Cash-ion extended its lead to 12 points.

Taylor led the way with 20 points.

Neeley Bedick poured in 17 points while Tatum Robertson scored 15.

Robertson scored 13 of her points in the second and third quarters.

Shots don’t fall

in Wildcat loss

That “championship hangover” that Cashion coach John Hardaway talked about continued into Friday for his basketball team.

The Wildcats lost their second straight game since winning their conference tournament when they dropped a 47-45 decision at Wellston.

“I thought we played good defense and rebounded well enough,” said Hardaway. “And we got a bunch of great looks from the outside.

“We just had a cold night shooting the ball.”

Wellston features an athletic 6-foot-8 post in Brayden Mitchell, who protected the rim in the center of the Tigers’ zone defense.

“We struggled to get anything on the inside, but still got some good looks from the perimeter,” Hardway said.

But Cashion made just 7 of 29 (24 percent) from 3-point range.

The Wildcats were without their most consistent long-range shooter, Ethan Suntken, who injured his thumb on his shooting hand on first possession of the Three Rivers Conference Tournament.

Suntken played the rest of the tournament and in the team’s loss to Seiling last Tuesday, but had his hand put in a cast after that game.

“It hurt not having him, but we have other capable shooters,” Hardaway said.

Cashion led 27-21 at halftime, but saw the lead disappear after being outscored 15-8 in the third quarter.

The Wildcats, for the second game in a row, had a chance to win at the buzzer, but Alex Nabavi’s 3-point attempt just missed its mark.

Mitchell finished the night with 13 points and 11 rebounds. He was 5 of 8 from the field and blocked four Cashion shots.

“He was a huge presence, literally and figuratively,” Hardaway said.

Wellston, which improved, to 11-4, was led by McKoy Coulson’s 15 points.

Cashion got 21 points from Jacob Woody.

Nabavi, battling an injury on a finger on his shooting hand, chipped in 10 more points as the Wildcats dropped to 11-4.