‘Couldn’t get over the hump’
Missed opportunities see Cashion’s season end in quarterfinals
CASHION'S VANCE Raney (20) (left) attempts to block Howe's Brayden Oglesby's (11) shot during their 2A quarterfinal on Thursday. Oglesby scored 12 points as the Lions knocked off Cashion 47-37. On the right, Nick Nabavi consoles a teammate after the game.
Cashion just needed that one shot to drop. It never did.
Howe scored the game’s final 10 points Thursday at State Fair Arena to pull out a 47-37 victory in the boys Class 2A quarterfinals.
The seventh-ranked Lions staked a 14-point second-quarter lead and were up 10 points at the half.
The second half started with an instant Cashion comeback as the Wildcats used a 9-0 run to pull within a point.
But twice in the third quarter and five more times in the fourth, Cashion had a possession with the chance to take the lead, but never could convert.
“The whole time I knew if we could just get the lead we were going to win,” said Cashion coach John Hardaway.
“We just couldn’t get over the hump.”
The Wildcats did get to the hump when Nick Nabavi’s 3-pointer with 2:22 left tied the game at 37-all.
It was the first time since the first two minutes of the game that Cashion didn’t trail.
The Lions’ Eduardo Sanchez answered as he penetrated for a bucket to give his team a two-point lead with 1:40 left and that was the start of a 10-0 run.
Cashion’s next four possessions ended with three turnovers and a missed field goal.
“I counted it up when I watched film and we had 23 possessions to tie or take the lead and we were able to tie it once,” Hardaway said.
“We just went stretches where we absolutely could not buy a bucket.”
Makes were tough to find for Cashion, which was 14 of 45 overall.
The Wildcats were just 23 percent in the first half as they dug an early deficit.
After Vance Raney’s bucket at 4:18 of the first quarter pulled Cashion within 7-6, Howe went on a 9-0 run.
That stretched into a 16-3 spurt into the second quarter as the Lions went up 23-9.
“We just weren’t very efficient on offense and that helped fuel Howe’s offense,” Hardaway said.
Cashion scored six straight, but Howe was able to push it back to 27-17 at the half.
Raney opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer and that was followed by three straight Jonah Jenkins buckets as Cashion found itself within 27-26.
Over the next 9:18 of the game, Howe’s lead bounced between one and three points as the Lions couldn’t build a cushion, but Cashion couldn’t get the crucial go-ahead bucket.
“I knew if we could get the lead once, we would hold them,” Hardaway said. “If we hold teams to 47 points, we’re almost always going to win.”
Howe shot 50 percent overall, including an efficient 14 of 21 inside the arc. The Lions were also 13 of 20 from the foul line.
Cashion attempted just eight free throws. The Wildcats were also 4 of 20 (20 percent) from 3-point range.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats were led by Jenkins’ 12 points.
Raney and Austin Frazier scored eight apiece.
Raney was a big focus of the Lions’ defense and he had only six field goal attempts.
“They face guarded him a lot,” Hardaway said. “Normally if teams do that, our other guys make them pay for it.”
But, again, the shots weren’t falling.
“I give Howe credit,” Hardaway said. “They beat us, but this is a tough one to swallow because we know we’re good enough to win, we just didn’t have it today.”
Although Cashion qualified for state last season (canceled due to COVID-19), the Wildcats were playing in a state tournament game for the first time since 1996.