Cashmere was forced to reschedule their would-have-been home opener and first game of the season against Zillah due to the Bulldogs making the 1A football state championship. The Dawgs will finally play basketball on December 12th when they travel to Connell to take on the 1-2 Eagles, who are looking to bounce back after a 4-point loss to Wapato on the 9th. Connell is led by Senior Nathan Moore, who is playing his final year of high school basketball with the Eagles after transferring from Richland, a prominent 4A basketball program. Moore has started the season off hot, and his last two games have been incredible performances. In his second game for Connell, they took on Othello, where Moore had 26 points and 12 rebounds in a loss. And most recently, Moore had a 34-point outing against Wapato in which Connell narrowly lost.
On top of Cashmere’s zero game sample size this season, 4 of the Bulldogs’ 5 starters have been limited in practice because of the football conflict with them, making a deep run in the state. Cashmere will be fighting an uphill battle this Friday, with many players still trying to get their basketball bodies back. Sophomore Mac Carlson, however, believes that the coaches have done a great job preparing the team, even with such limited reps. When asked if he feels like the team is behind, he had this to say: “I don’t think so, our coaches have put us in positions to succeed and have prepared us well”. However, coaches can only do so much to lead a team, and the rest of the responsibility falls on the players. This will be the case this Friday: “The biggest keys to winning [against Connell] will be to take care of the ball and to play an unselfish brand of basketball that we will look back on and be proud of,” said Carlson when asked about the biggest keys to a win this Friday.
