Lady Wildcats bounce back from title game loss

Cashion fell short of a tournament championship on Friday, but came through with a win over a defending state champ on Saturday.

The Lady Wildcats played in two different events on back-to-back days last Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, they wrapped up the long-delayed Cashion County Line Tournament and fell 54-43 at home to Riverside in the championship game.

The following day Cashion trekked to Enid for the Skordle Festival and downed Hammon 49-31.

Hammon won the Class B state title last season and came into the festival ranked No. 9 in Class B-II.

The Lady Warriors couldn’t quite figure out Cashion’s defense and were held to single digits in each of the four quarters.

Cashion made an early move with a 13-5 run in the first quarter.

Still up eight at halftime, the Lady Wildcats put it away with a 21-9 run in the third quarter.

Senior Jaylee Harp led the way with 17 points while Brooke Shafer scored 12 for Cashion.

Tinley Meier chipped in 9.

Hammon was led by Danika Bullcoming’s 14 points.

Harp and Shafer also reached double digits in the loss to 2A’s sixth-ranked Riverside.

The teams battled closely for much of the night as Riverside took a slim threepoint lead into the fourth quarter.

But the Braves outscored Cashion 21-13 down the stretch to pull away and win the title.

The champs got 27 points out of Bobiey Parker.

Harp paced Cashion with 15 while Shafer scored 13.

••• Cashion shot 34 percent for the game and 16 percent from 3-point range.

The Wildcats made only 50 percent of their free throws and managed just 2 points in the third quarter.

And they won. The Wildcats found a way down the stretch and downed Hammon 42-40 Saturday during the Skordle Festival at the Stride Bank Center in Enid.

Down by 4 points entering the fourth, Cashion outscored Hammon 18-12 over the final eight minutes to improve to 11-6 on the season.

Cashion was just 4 of 25 from 3-point range, but got two big shots from Parker Mitchell inside the arc down the stretch to turn a one-point deficit into a three-point advantage.

Kyle Yowell made it a four-point lead with a free throw with about 10 seconds to play and Hammon scored a meaningless late bucket to pull within the final margin.

Mitchell accounted for half of Cashion’s points.

He netted 21 and also had six rebounds.

Yowell, Brayden Stuemky and Grayson Little scored 6 points each.

Cashion held the Warriors to 1 of 15 shooting from 3-point range and 17 of 50 (34 percent) overall.