SO CLOSE
Cashion takes No. 6 Caddo to the wire in last-chance bid at 2A state
CASHION SENIORS Cedar Stewart and Kaitin Taylor embrace after their team was defeated 46-42 by Caddo in a 2A area consolation championship, which ended the Lady Wildcats’ season last Saturday. [Photo by Brad Stone/www.bestone.shootprodcom]
Caddo got two of the biggest plays of the game and that was enough to undo Cashion’s season.
The sixth-ranked Lady Bruins scored twice in the final 30 seconds - and forced a pair of Cashion turnovers - to pull out a 46-42 victory in a Class 2A area consolation championship game at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center in Weatherford.
The loss ended Cashion’s season one win shy of the state tournament as Caddo advanced to the field of final-eight teams that will vie for a championship this weekend.
Cashion was 19-9 and went 7-3 in its last 10 games.
Its only three losses were to No. 5 Dale, No. 2 Silo and Caddo.
“This team was special,” said Andrea Taylor after her first season as a head coach. “They had to overcome alot of adversity in the beginning and I think it really bonded them together.”
After dropping a sixpoint decision to Caddo the previous week, 14thranked Cashion won two straight elimination games at area.
That included Friday’s 38-35 victory against No. 10 Stratford.
Against Stratford, Cashion outscored its foe 13-8 in the second quarter then held on in the fourth.
Kaitin Taylor made a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left for the final margin.
Taylor scored 10 while Lauren Lamb led the team with 13 points.
The Cashion offense struggled for the first three quarters against Caddo.
The Lady Bruins limited Cashion to seven field goals and 20 points in the first 24 minutes.
“We just couldn’t get any kind of offense going,” Taylor said.
She made an adjustment in the second half and it paid dividends in the fourth quarter. Taylor went with a smaller lineup that pressed and trapped Caddo all over the court.
“They turned it over a bunch,” Taylor said.
And Cashion capitalized.
Cedar Stewart scored 10 points alone in the fourth and Cashion eventually tied the game at 42-all.
However, Stewart was also called for her fifth foul late in the game when she was trying to force a jump ball.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Caddo’s Emily Robinson was eventually left wide open underneath and easily scored the go-ahead bucket.
Cashion was called for a travel on the other end and the Lady Bruins got one more breakaway basket to seal the win.
Robinson scored 16 for Caddo, which was led by Kynsey Dixon’s 21 points.
Stewart led Cashion with 14 points.
Lamb scored nine and Neeley Tilley-Bedick added six.
The loss didn’t put a damper on Taylor’s feelings about her team.
“They figured out how to fight and battle and not give up and by the end of the season they figured out they were really good,” Taylor said of her team.