Wildcats leave their legacy

John Hardaway felt great about his team’s chances to bring home gold in the Class 2A championship.

Unless…

“Unless Dayton Forsythe just decides his team is not going to lose,” Hardaway said.

Forsythe, Dale’s highly-touted sophomore guard, apparently decided just that as he carried the Pirates to a 65-58 victory over Cashion in Saturday’s Class 2A title game at State Fair Arena.

It was Dale’s first title in boys basketball.

Cashion was in the championship game for the first time in program history.

The Wildcats had won just one state tournament game prior to this year, but dominated Latta and Morrison en route to Saturday’s rubber match with the topranked Pirates.

The two had split games earlier in the year.

Dale beat the Wildcats 48-34 in the finals of Cashion’s County Line Tournament in late January. Cashion returned the favor with a 54-39 victory on Valentine’s Day.

Forsythe had his moments in both of those games, but the Wildcats were able to make him work harder and take more tough shots the second time around.

On the biggest stage, Forsythe rose to - and above - the occasion…and the rim.

With 1:15 to play in the first quarter and Cashion leading by four, Dale’s Easton Edmonson lobbed a pass at the rim to Forsythe who had been freed by a back screen.

Forsythe leapt into the air, grabbed the ball and threw down the dunk with two hands.

“I really think that put him into a new gear,” Hardaway said. “We had kind of controlled it to that point, but that got him and the team and the crowd really into it.

“From that dunk on, he was like ‘Get on my back boys.’”

Third-ranked Cashion certainly didn’t fold.

Senior guard Jonah Jenkins drove the floor and scored near the end of the first half to give Cashion a 28-26 lead.

Jenkins had 12 points at the break.

Vance Raney battled foul trouble in the first half, but came back to score five in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer with 1:00 left to keep Cashion within 42-39 entering the fourth.

Austin Frazier then took his turn to help keep the Wildcats in it.

The senior forward scored the first six points of the frame for Cashion and eight of the first 11.

But on the other end of the floor, Forsythe was imposing his will.

During the stretch in which Frazier scored six, Forsythe scored 11.

He scored or assisted on Dale’s first 17 points of the fourth.

Twice that allowed the Pirates to stake a nine-point lead.

The second was his drive and dish to Jett Higdon, whose easy bump off the glass made it 59-50 with 3:04 to play.

“One thing you can say about our guys is they’ve played until the final horn their entire career,” Hardaway said. “They’ve always known they’re never out of it.”

And Cashion wasn’t.

Jenkins made his fourth 3-pointer of the game and after Forsythe made one of two free throws, Raney provided another trey.

Frazier drew an offensive foul on Deken Jones just seconds later and with 1:20 to play, Landon LaGasse’s putback had Cashion within 60-58.

Cashion sent a Pirate to the line 11 seconds later. He made the first of two attempts to push Dale to a 61-58 advantage.

The Wildcats worked the ball for more than 20 seconds on the opposite end before Frazier let fly the would-be game-tying 3-pointer.

It missed. Forsythe commenced to

Forsythe commenced to make all four foul attempts over the final 35 seconds of the game to ice the title.

In all, he scored 37 points and grabbed eight rebounds to go with four assists.

He was 10 of 19 from the field and 15 of 17 from the foul line.

“He’s special,” Hardaway said. “I’ve coached 18 years and he’s the hardest player I’ve had to defend as a coach since Keiton Page.”

The Pirates also got 16 points from Jones, who was 6 of 9 from the floor.

“They got great contributions from him,” Hardaway said. “When we beat them, he struggled, but he was really good.”

Despite those two huge performances, Cashion had a chance to tie the game in the final minute.

“I told the team before the game that as a little kid growing up, you always visualize taking the big shot in the championship game,” Hardaway said. “I told them to play courageous.”

Frazier, one of eight seniors on the roster, took that shot.

“I pulled him over and told him it took a lot of courage to take that shot,” Hardaway said.

“I told him I was proud of him for taking it and wanted him to do it again if he got the chance.”

Frazier finished the night with 10 points and five boards.

LaGasse scored 12 to go with his game-high 11 rebounds.

Raney fought through the foul issues to score 13.

Jenkins led the team with 20.

All four averaged double digits this season, though none will have averaged more than 15 points.

“We’ve had six guys who have led us in scoring at one point this year,” said Hardaway, noting Nick Nabavi and Trey Tichenor are the others. “These guys don’t care who does the scoring and never have. Look at the stats and it shows.”

In Cashion’s 57-37 throttling of No. 4 Morrison in the semifinals, the Wildcats nailed eight 3-pointers.

Frazier made three of them and scored 16 points.

Jenkins and LaGasse added a pair each and scored 11 and nine points, respectively.

Tichenor chipped in seven points.

Cashion was up by 14 points after the first quarter and led 35-13 at halftime against a team it beat by nine in the regular season.

“We thought we were going to have to play really well to beat them and that it still might be a one- or two-possession game,” Hardaway said. “But our guys were locked in. They came out and hit some big shots and played the best defense we’ve played all year.

“They knew the opportunity to play on Saturday was there and went out and made the most of it.”

And then they gave it all they had in the finals…Forsythe just had a little more.

“The finals was what it was supposed to be,” Hardaway said. “It was the two best teams and they were going back and forth.”

Cashion doesn’t have the color of ball it wanted, but puts the first one in the trophy case for the boys program.

When the game was over, Hardaway sat with the team in the locker room.

They sat, quietly, for several moments as he collected his own thoughts.

“The first thing we had to do was recognize we didn’t reach our goal. Our team was good enough to win it and we knew that,” Hardaway said. “We gave credit to Dale for that. My kids respect Dale and respect Forsythe.”

After that, he did his best to lay the foundation for the silver lining.

“I told them I was very proud of where we were. I knew it stung and if it didn’t, they should have a problem with that,” Hardaway said. “Then I told them they’d be proud of it at some point. It wouldn’t be tomorrow or next week or maybe not even next month.”

But the group that put Cashion on the basketball map by qualifying for three straight state tournaments left their mark on their school.

“I told them they were the best boys team here and this (silver ball) says that,” he said. “The two best teams in 2A played. Unfortunately, one of them got beat.

“That’s a part of sports and a part of life.”

CHAMPIONSHIP BOX SCORE

Dale 65

Cashion 58

Cashion 19 9 11 19 - 58

Dale 16 10 16 23 - 65

Cashion – Jonah Jenkins 20, Vance Raney 13, Landon LaGasse 12, Austin Frazier 10, Nick Nabavi 3.

Dale – Dayton Forsythe 37, Deken Jones 16, Jett Higdon 5, Easton Edmonson 3, Levi Kelly 2, Trayden Chambers 2.