What a week it was

The gauntlet has been completed.

Class 2A’s third-ranked Cashion capped off a remarkable week to end its regular season Tuesday with a 51-50 come-from-behind win at home against Watonga.

The victory over the eighth-ranked Eagles came one day after the Wildcats beat No. 1 Dale and four days after a victory against No. 4 Morrison.

Austin Frazier’s driving bucket with 14 seconds left - and two subsequent misses in the paint by Watonga - gave Cashion its fifth victory in eight days and secured the Three Rivers Conference regular season title.

Frazier scored 10 points and is one of nine Cashion seniors who go out with 28 straight conference victories.

On top of winning four straight conference tournaments, the Wildcats also won the regular season in 2020. Although no regular season champ was crowned last year due to several cancellations, Cashion was unbeaten in TRC games.

This one, though, didn’t come easy.

Cashion defeated the Eagles 51-24 in the finals of the conference tournament in January, but the visitors found early success in the rematch.

The Eagles knocked down five 3-pointers in the first half, two each by Deondre Dunn and Osten Reyes.

That plus 26 percent shooting by Cashion in the first two quarters saw the Wildcats trail 29-19 at halftime.

Coach John Hardaway said he stressed two things during his halftime message.

One was to be more poised on both sides of the ball.

“And we needed to have longer offensive possessions,” he said of the other. “We had too much early one-on-one and quick trigger shots in the first half.”

The message worked.

By the time Vance Raney and Nick Nabavi knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers, Cashion had turned its deficit into a 38-36 advantage with 1:53 to go in the third.

The teams were tied at 40 after three quarters, but Dunn’s driving bucket with 2:00 to play had the Eagles on top 49-44.

That was just their fifth field goal of the half and the last of the game.

Raney quickly answered with his fourth trey of the game to pull Cashion within two points.

After the teams exchanged miss free throws, Jonah Jenkins grabbed a rebound and tied the game at 49-49 with a coast-to-coast bucket.

Jenkins then tied up the Eagles on the other end, giving Cashion possession with 1:00 to play.

Cashion worked the clock down, but Dunn struck big for the Eagles when he picked Jenkins and was fouled trying to score the go-ahead bucket.

Dunn missed the first free throw, but put Watonga up 50-49 by making the second with 24.8 seconds left.

Hardaway didn’t call a timeout and it paid off as Frazier struck just seconds later.

Phoenix Whiteshield drove down the right side of the lane to try to answer for Watonga, but his shot was long. Laron Whiteshield was there for the putback, but his shot also missed.

Nabavi was able to dribble out the final seconds.

Dunn scored 21 for Watonga, but was the only Eagle to score a field goal in the fourth.

Devon Wilson added 12 points for the Eagles as they finished their regular sea son 18-4 overall and were 6-1 in the conference.

Cashion started the season 1-3, but finished at 18-5 overall and 7-0 in the TRC.

Raney led the team with 16 points. All of his 3-pointers and all but two of his points came in the second half.

Jenkins scored 13. He scored eight of Cashion’s nine points in the first quarter.

Landon LaGasse and Nabavi scored six apiece and combined for 11 rebounds. Frazier led the team with eight boards.