Warriors in a league of their own

John Hardaway likens the Okarche boys basketball team to a tsunami.

“You’re on the other side of the dam just trying to keep it from cracking,” said the Cashion coach.

His team did better than most, especially at the Three Rivers Conference Tournament.

Okarche won its second straight conference tournament and sixth overall Wednesday when it downed Cashion 93-66 in the boys’ title game at Minco High School.

The 27-point margin of victory was the smallest for Okarche in the tournament… by a lot.

Okarche also had wins by 68 and 46 points.

The 47-point average margin of victory dwarfed the 38-point differential Okarche managed in racing to last year’s title.

But the Warriors couldn’t just run away from Cashion like it has most other foes this season.

The Wildcats - playing for the third day in a row and fourth out of the last five due to the tournament being rescheduled because of weather - for the most part matched Okarche for the entire first period and well into the second.

Okarche was up 25-21 after a quarter and it stayed within a few possessions until late in the second quarter.

“They came out and knocked down some open shots and moved the ball really well,” said Okarche coach Aaron West of Cashion.

But all it takes is a short lull and the avalanche - or tsunami in this case - can be overwhelming.

“We had a bad stretch in the last five minutes of the second quarter and that was the difference,” Hardaway said.

Okarche didn’t have that bad stretch and pushed its lead to 53-34 at the half.

The Warriors incrementally built on the lead in the second half.

Jett Mueggenborg proved next to impossible for Cashion to slow down.

The Okarche junior dropped in 36 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

He was 5 of 6 from 3-point range.

As a team, Okarche made 14 of 31 3-point attempts.

Hunter Mueggenborg and Easton Roby each made a trio of treys.

Roby scored 22 points and had 12 rebounds while Hunter Mueggenborg chipped in 19 points and a game-high six assists.

Ethan Kirby added nine points for the champs.

“Our guys battled and played tough,” said West as his team improved to 15-0. “They played with max effort and competed. I was happy with that.”

Cashion fell to 11-4 with the loss.

The tournament was played on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday. Cashion also played a regular season game Tuesday and beat Seiling 94-47 on the road.

In perhaps their best offensive performance of the season, 13 different Wildcats scored.

The team made 17 3-pointers and had 32 assists.

Against Okarche, Cashion had “just” 20 turnovers (a season-low caused by the Warriors) and made 10 treys.

Drake Woody drained three of them for all nine of his points.

Parker Mitchell, Kamden Miller and Kyle Yowell had two apiece.

Mitchell led the team with 20 points while Miller scored 10.

Although Okarche was a heavy favorite going into the tournament, West said he was proud of how his team competed and left nothing to chance.

“The conference tournament is always tough to win,” he said.

“We never take it for granted.”

Hennessey places 4th

A hot start by Crescent propelled the Tigers to a 7457 victory over Hennessey in the third-place game.

The Tigers got out to a 25-11 lead in the first quarter and pushed it to 22 points by halftime.

Coby Watson sparked them with 13 points in the first quarter and finished with 23. Chez South scored 17 of his game-high 29 points in the second half.

The Eagles couldn’t keep up.

Camdyn Richardson poured in 24 points. He had 13 of his team’s points by halftime.

Hagen Copeland scored 11 for Hennessey, which fell to 5-6 on the season.