Cashion drops regional title tilts

Cashion did a good job of slowing down Merritt’s offense.

Merritt’s defense just did a better job of stopping Cashion.

The fourth-ranked Oilerettes advanced to a 2A area championship game with a 42-28 victory over Cashion in a regional final Saturday in Watonga.

Merritt’s (23-3) point total was its fifth lowest of the season. The Oilerettes lost three of the other four games when being held below 42.

But they were still able to outscore Cashion in every quarter. They led 20-11 at the half and bumped it to 32-20 by the end of the third quarter.

Cashion was led by Brooke Shafer’s 10 points. Kate Nabavi added 7 as No. 15 Cashion fell to 17-11 on the season.

Marlie Mong led Merritt with 20 points.

Cashion heads to this week’s area tournament at Bridge Creek needing three wins to advance to state.

The Lady Wildcats play No. 19 Christian Heritage at 6 p.m. Thursday in the consolation quarterfinals.

OCA lives up to ranking against Wildcats Cashion ran into a machine Saturday night.

Second-ranked Oklahoma Christian Academy flexed its muscle in an 83-62 victory in a Class 2A regional championship in Watonga.

That moves OCA into this week’s area title game.

Cashion drops into the area consolation and will play Three Rivers Conference mate Minco at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Bridge Creek.

The Eagles got going early and outscored Cashion 23-10 in the first quarter and continued to build on it over the next two frames.

Entering the fourth, they were up 66-38.

Cashion made eight 3-pointers and shot a modest 41 percent, but just couldn’t keep up. The Eagles made 53 percent of their shots, including draining 13 3-pointers.

Parker Mitchell paced the Wildcats with 24 points.

Kyle Yowell joined Mitchell in making three 3-pointers each. Yowell scored 13 to go with 6 rebounds.

But Cashion had no answer for Carter Coleman, the 6-foot-7 forward who dominated with 32 points and 13 rebounds. He was 10 of 12 from the field, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range, and made all eight of his free throws.

Matthew Mason added 19 points and 6 assists.

Cashion, ranked 17th, is now 17-10.

Thursday will mark its third matchup of the season with Minco. Cashion won 71-57 at Minco in December, but the Bulldogs repaid the favor with a 52-50 victory in the conference tournament quarterfinals in January.