RANEY DAY

Bend your knees.

That simple part of the shooting process helped Vance Raney have a career night, reach a scoring milestone and push the Cashion Wildcats into a regional championship game.

Raney was unconscious Saturday night as he scored a career-high 36 points in the Wildcats’ 77-59 victory at home over Pawnee in a Class 2A regional semifinal.

Third-ranked Cashion hosted No. 11 Amber-Pocasset Tuesday night (after press time) for the regional crown and the right to advance straight to the area championship.

The Wildcats rode Raney’s hot hand to their eighth straight win.

The senior was 10 of 14 from 3-point range, the most of any Wildcat under coach John Hardaway.

“He was unreal,” Hardaway said. “It’s as simple as that.”

For Raney, it was as simple as making sure he was following one of the rules of shooting.

“Most of my misses are because I don’t bend my knees enough, so that’s really what I focused on in warmups,” he said. “Then that just led to me finding my rhythm in-game.”

Raney made two treys as Cashion took a 13-10 lead into the second quarter.

That’s when he started to fire up.

He connected on four more treys and scored 14 points in the second quarter as the Wildcats extended their lead to 34-22.

An 18-9 run in the third quarter saw Raney bury three more bombs.

He had 31 points by the end of the third quarter.

Although Pawnee caught fire with 28 fourth-quarter points, it didn’t threaten

Cashion, which scored 25.

Eight different Wildcats scored in the final frame.

Landon LaGasse scored four of his eight points in the fourth and also had six rebounds.

Austin Frazier led the team with seven boards to go with his six points.

Jonah Jenkins added eight points and five assists while Nick Nabavi scored seven.

Raney had five points, including one more 3-pointer, in the fourth quarter.

His point total for the night put him at exactly 1,000 for his career.

“It felt good,” he said on combining a career-high and a career milestone into one.

“I didn’t start the season off shooting as well as I would have liked, so it felt good to start hitting some shots and reach a goal of mine.”

Of course, Cashion’s ultimate goal is a state title.

Raney is part of a large contingent of seniors that qualified for the 2020 state tournament that was never played, then was upset by Howe in last year’s 2A quarterfinals.

“I believe that’s (state championship) been the only thought on all the players’ and coaches’ minds at Cashion since we fell short last year,” Raney said.

Big 4Q lifts Cashion girls into regional title game

The offense for Cashion went quiet for two quarters.

But then it woke up just in time to guarantee the Lady Wildcats’ spot in this week’s area tournament.

Cashion outscored Pawnee 22-10 in the fourth quarter Saturday to earn a 48-40 come-from-behind win in their Class 2A regional semifinal clash.

The home victory pushed Cashion into Tuesday’s (after press time) regional championship game against Riverside, which upset No. 6 Amber-Pocasset 63-50 in their semifinal.

Win or lose Tuesday, Cashion will advance to the area tournament later this week.

A win on Saturday was a question mark at best after the Lady Wildcats scored just 12 combined points in the second and third quarters.

That saw their threepoint lead turn into a 30-26 deficit entering the fourth quarter.

That’s when Lauren Lamb, Megan Shafer and Lauren Jenkins emerged.

The trio combined to score all but two of the team’s points in the final quarter.

Jenkins had just two points entering the quarter, but added six more in the fourth.

Shafer and Lamb scored seven apiece.

Lamb also had 10 in the first quarter and led the way with 19 points.

Shafer ended her night with 11.

Cashion also got eight points from Brook Shelly.

The Lady Wildcats enter the regional final with a 14-7 mark. Riverside was 18-6 and had won nine straight.