Carter Crowe caught the pass at the right-wing and buried a three. Just like that, the No. 7 Wildcats 11-point first-half lead was gone. The No. 1 Pirates had weathered the storm and took its first lead of the game with 5:33 to go in the third quarter. 

The Pirates would push their lead to six with 3:15 to go before Cashion’s Alex Nabavi and Jonah Jenkins put the Wildcats on their back.

On three straight possessions, the ball ended in Nabavi’s hands. Each time the ball went through the net, the last one a three-pointer to pull the Wildcats within one with 1:30 to go.

On the ensuing possession, the Pirates elected to hold the ball near halfcourt, settling for one final shot to either extend their lead or take their one-point lead into the fourth. Then Jenkins made the biggest play of the game.

With 10 seconds to go, Dallen Forsythe dribbled over a double screen before finding Ike Shirey in the corner. Cashion’s Landon LaGasse forced Shirey back towards the top of the key where Jenkins was waiting. Jenkins ripped the ball away before going coast-to-coast laying it off the glass to give Cashion the lead again as time expired. It was a devastating momentum swing for both teams. The Wildcats had absorbed Dale’s best punch and escaped the quarter in front. 

“They held the ball for so long that we were kind of able to move some guys into better positions,” Cashion Head Coach John Hardaway said. “We knew what they were going to try to do and we were able to make some switches ahead of their action and Jonah is so savvy that he was able to make a play and knew he had time to go lay it up. That possession was huge. After that, I felt like we really controlled the fourth quarter.”

From the run to close the gap and take the lead in the third quarter to 2:26 left in the fourth, Nabavi and Jenkins scored 19 straight points for the Wildcats to give Cashion a 45-36 lead. Then with 1:34 to go, Vance Raney delivered the dagger. Trey Tichenor caught the ball in the lane before kicking it out to Raney who splashed in a corner three to put the Wildcats up 12. The celebration was on. The Wildcats upset the top-ranked Pirates and proved that they are a legitimate contender for a gold ball this season. 

Jenkins led the way with a game-high 19 points. Nabavi added 16. On a day when perhaps the Wildcat’s best scorer was dealing with an illness, Cashion proved they have enough pieces to win on any given night.

“Our best strength is the sum of all our parts,” Hardaway said. “We don’t have to have one guy go out and get 30 for us to win. We have a lot of guys who can go score so we don’t have to have a player play his best every night for us to win. The great thing about that is everyone is okay with that. As long as we win, nothing else matters to them. This team has a bigger goal at hand.”

After a heartbreaking loss to Crossings Christian on Thursday of the Cashion County Line Tournament, Hardaway told his team not to let their first loss of the season beat them twice. He knew they would have a chance to play the No. 1 team in their class if they took care of business. And that’s exactly what they did.

“We told them that if we took care of business on Friday that we’d get a shot at the number one team in our class on our home floor, which is what they all wanted anyway,” Hardaway said. “As much as Thursday hurt, they had a big goal for Saturday. They came out Friday and shot the lights out and then woke up Saturday with all the motivation in the world to go play against a number one team. We were able to get a big win today and the first thing I told them in the locker room was that to win two games in this tournament is an unbelievable weekend. This was such a loaded tournament and to come away with two wins this weekend was a really great job.”