Cashion, Okarche battle at Garber
Cashion was able to top one county rival, but a panhandle foe was too much to overcome in its hopes of winning a tournament.
The Lady Wildcats settled for runners-up at the NextEra Energy Resources Invitational at Garber after Saturday’s 51-42 setback against Hooker.
Hooker controlled the middle two quarters to earn the win. The tournament championship helped vault the Lady Bulldogs from No. 12 last week to No. 8 in this week’s 2A rankings.
Cashion dropped from ninth to 11th.
The game was tied 8-all after a quarter, but Hooker led by three at halftime, then extended it to nine entering the fourth.
Neely Tilley-Bedick led Cashion with 13.
Brook Shelly scored 12.
Cashion reached the finals by handing Okarche its first loss of the season on Friday,
The Lady Wildcats outscored Okarche 16-12 in each the first and third quarters to build their lead.
Tilley-Bedick again led the way with 14 points.
Lauren Lamb and Lauren Jenkins scored 11 apiece.
Okarche got 13 points from Tyson Endres and nine from Emma Stover.
The road remained tougher for Okarche in the third-place game as it fell 67-65 to Garber.
Garber entered the game ranked seventh while Okarche was fourth in Class A.
In the rankings released Monday, Garber moved up to No. 5 while Okarche dropped to eighth.
It was also announced Monday that Okarche’s season was going to see its second interruption.
According to an email from Superintendent Josh Sumrall, the Okarche girls team was put into quarantine due to COVID-19 contact tracing and would postpone its games Tuesday, Friday and Saturday of this week.
Tuesday’s games against Oklahoma Bible Academy were scheduled to serve as both senior night and homecoming for Okarche.
“We’ll try to make up the games, homecoming and senior night sometime in January or February,” Sumrall said.
Cashion tops Okarche boys for 3rd
The boys’ bracket of Garber’s NextEra Energy Resources Invitational wasn’t for the faint of heart.
It featured Class 2A’s second-ranked (Cashion) and sixth-ranked (Hooker) teams as well as a defending state champ currently second in Class A (Garber).
Okarche had the distinction of getting to play two of those before settling for fourth place in the tournament.
“It was a tough bracket,” coach Aaron West said. “Hopefully it makes us better down the road.”
After opening with a win, the Warriors ran into the host team in the semifinals.
While they played the Wolverines tough early, Garber methodically pulled away for a 68-40 victory.
Four different Wolverines scored in double figures while Okarche shot just 29 percent.
The Warriors were ledby Logan Kroener’s 21 points.
Joseph Schaefer added eight points and seven rebounds.
The loss was the first of the season for the Warriors.
The Cashion boys also took on their first defeat in the semifinals.
Despite trailing by double digits in the second half, Cashion forced overtime before falling 66-57 to Hooker.
Jonah Jenkins made two late free throws to force overtime, but the Bulldogs outscored Cashion 9-2 in the extra period.
Jenkins scored 15 points to go with 11 rebounds and five assists.
Trey Tichenor nailed four 3-pointers and led the team with 16 points.
Austin Frazier chipped in 15 points and nine rebounds.
That pitted Cashion against county Okarche in Saturday’s third-place game, one that saw the Wildcats emerge 68-43.
Cashion outscored the Warriors in every quarter, including a combined 29-11 in the second and fourth frames.
Okarche got 19 points and 10 rebounds from Schaefer.
Kroener added 12 points and eight boards.
Cashion got 18 points each from Frazier and Jenkins.
Jenkins also had 10 rebounds and six assists Frazier seven boards and six assists.
Vance Raney, 4 of 9 from 3-point range, scored 14 points to go with a teamhigh 12 rebounds.
Hooker eventually defeated Garber 46-43 in the tournament champi-onship.
In the rankings that followed the tournament, Hooker moved up to No. 2 while Cashion fell to fourth in 2A.
Garber dropped one spot in Class A to No. 3. Okarche entered the tour-nament ranked 13th in A, but fell to 15th with its two losses.
(Ed. note: See girls recap regarding Okarche’s season being shut down for the rest of the calendar year.)