Too good at goodbyes: Caston avenges earlier loss to North White, wins back-to-back sectionals

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Boys basketball

Caston 55, North White 54 (Saturday): Sam Smith hit a short jumper on a press breaker as time expired to give the Caston boys basketball team a 55-54 win over North White in the Class 1A, Sectional 52 final at Tri-County High School Saturday.

The win gave Caston their eighth sectional title in school history and their second straight. Caston will play Triton in a Class 1A regional semifinal at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday.

Fremont will play Kouts in the second semifinal at 12:30 p.m., and the winners return at 8 p.m. for the regional final.

Smith scored eight of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter for the Comets, who improved to 10-15. Cam Kline hit four 3-pointers and added 12. Joey Spin scored six, including five in the fourth quarter. Jake Paschen hit a pair of 3-pointers and had had six.

One day after making 14 3-pointers in a semifinal win over Tri-County, Caston hit seven more treys in the final.

Caston made four of 11 free throws. North White went one for four from the line.

Nate Miller and Hunter Pogue scored 14 points each for North White (15-9), who had an eight-game winning streak snapped. Bentley Buschman added 11, and Jeffrey Stevens had 10 for North White.

Miller scored eight of North White’s 14 points in the fourth quarter. Pogue, North White’s leading scorer at 16.3 ppg, was held to two points in the second half.

Caston lost to North White 56-46 on Feb. 13 in their regular season meeting.

Caston won back-to-back sectional titles for the first time since winning three straight from 1991-93.

Caston coach Carl Davis joins Doug Hicks (2000, 2003) as the only coaches in school history to win multiple sectional titles.

CASTON (55) (10-15)

Joey Spin 2 2-5 6, Kade Zeider 1 0-0 3, Cam Kline 4 0-0 12, Bryce Rudicel 4 0-0 8, Sam Smith 8 2-6 18, Jake Paschen 2 0-0 6, Jessie Rock-Wolf 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 22 4-11 55

NORTH WHITE (54) (15-9)

Miller 6 1-2 14, Pogue 5 0-0 14, Bentley Buschman 5 0-2 11, Brayden Buschman 1 0-0 2, Stevens 5 0-0 10, Denton 1 0-0 3, Hernandez 0 0-0 0, Orr 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 23 1-4 54

Three-point field goals:

Caston 7 (Kline 4, Paschen 2, Zeider),

North White 7 (Pogue 4, Miller, Bentley Buschman, Denton)

Total fouls: Caston 11, North White 13

Score by quarters

Caston 13 16 8 18 – 55

North White 8 21 11 14 – 54

Video Courtesy of Chuck Evans