Cache, Plainview girls teams survive and advance in 4A regional consolation round
By Josh Jennings
Photo of Plainview's Jacey Hammon
OKLAHOMA CITY - In a 4A girls regional consolation semifinal Friday, Cache trailed Broken Bow until there were six seconds left in regulation.
Eventually, the game went into overtime and the Lady Bulldogs beat the Lady Savages, 49-47, at Crossings Christian School. Cache will face Plainview, which beat Crossings Christian, 51-39, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday for the regional consolation championship.
The regional championship will be played at 6 p.m. Saturday at CCS between Tuttle and Tecumseh.
Cache 49, Broken Bow 47 (overtime)
Cache trailed the majority of the game until Aiyanna Mason hit a layup with seven seconds to play to give her team a 39-38 lead.
During the inbounds play, Broken Bow heaved the ball down the floor to a wide open Haylee Brantley. She attempted the game winning layup with three seconds to play, but she was fouled.
Brantley made one free throw, tying the game at 39. Cache attempted full-court heave, which missed the mark and set up the overtime session.
“Trust the process and nothing is easy is what I told my girls,” Cache coach Rashelle Crowley said. “I preach to the girls all the time about adversity and how to overcome it. Things do not always go as planned, and you just have to trust the process.”
In overtime, both offenses came alive. Broken Bow buried two 3-pointers, but Cache scored some quick buckets as well, and the score was tied at 47 with less than a minute to play.
Broken Bow made a critical error, by throwing the ball in the backcourt on an inbounds play in its own territory with 33 seconds remaining.
Aailyah Young from Cache made two free throws and got the rebound with 0.01 seconds left to give Cache the two-point win. She also scored nearly half of Cache’s points, recording 24 points.
SBLive Oklahoma Top 25 girls basketball rankings: Surging Norman moves up to No. 5
“I tried to keep the team positive and I showed out on the court (Friday),” Young said. “Coach Crowley has a huge impact on us and we gave everything we had in this game.”
Cache also tied the game three times in the third quarter, but could not get over the hump to take the lead. Crowley noted the girls fought through so much adversity through the entire game.
“We just had to be patient,” Crowley said. “We trusted the process and kept grinding, even when it was tough and hard. We did a great job pressuring the ball and we just kept fighting.”
Two girls from Broken Bow scored in double figures, Molly Rogers with 19 and Rayliegh Gaston with 14.
Plainview 51, Crossings Christian 39
Plainview was explosive to start the game and opened the game on a 7-0 run.
CCS trailed the entire first half, but Gracie Maschmeier hit four 3-pointers in the first half to keep CCS afloat. She hit five total 3-pointers and scored 16 points in the first half for CCS.
Jacey Hammon scored several layups for Plainview, which took a 28-24 lead at halftime. She also scored 10 points in the first half.
“We have a saying on our team, 'Together,'" Hammon said. “We just play together. We pass the ball around and are unselfish. Coach (Grant) Gash told us to keep playing hard.”
CCS made plays, but Plainview always seemed to respond. CCS got within two points, but could not manage to tie it or take the lead. Plainview was ahead, 39-34, going into the fourth quarter.
Hammon hit a 3-pointer, making it 42-34. Plainview got a stop and slowed the game down by running a slow offense.
Oklahoma's best high school girls basketball players: Meet the state's top shooting guards
CCS got back in it when Clara Bebee hit a 3-pointer, making it a four-point game with more than two minutes to play.
However, Plainview scored a couple of fast-break layups and won the game.
“We wanted to play fast and push the ball and we played together,” Gash said. “I thought the girls did a great job moving the ball and was proud of our toughness.
"Crossings Christian did a great job shooting the ball early, but I thought we responded well in scoring, too, and closed the game out in the end.”
Hammon scored 22 points for Plainview. For CCS, Maschmeier scored 20 points and Allison Hickey scored 13 points.
