2/1/2025 vs. Ashland CT ... CONFERENCE / home / CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT / Finals

Season Game #: 17 / Current Record: 14 - 3

WAHOO: 13 ... 11 ... 9 ... 20 .... 53
Ashland CT: 9 ... 18 ... 8 ... 9 .... 44

Wahoo claimed its third Trailblazer Conference Tournament crown by defeating Ashland 53 – 54 on Saturday. The Warriors have been in all five of the young conference’s tournaments. It was Ashland’s second trip to the title game, having won the title last year. The two teams came into the tournament heading in different directions. Ashland had lost three consecutive games before winning their first two tournament contests, while Wahoo was extending its win streak to seven games with its two tournament wins. It appeared that Wahoo, which had beaten Ashland 54 – 42 back in December would have the upper hand. But it took a super performance in the fourth quarter for the Warriors to prevail.

Ashland had held the lead through-out the second half. With the score tied at 41 and 3:29 to play, Eli Shada poked the ball free, Jase Kaminski picked up the loose ball and launched a long pass to Simons down court. Simons secured the pass, was fouled on the layup and sank both free throws to give Wahoo its first lead since the six-minute mark of the second quarter. With 1:33 left to go, Eli Shada made two free throws to put the lead at 47 – 44. At the :45 mark, Simons made the play of the game. With the shot clock running out, Simons launched a three from the left side …. Swish! Wahoo took a two-possession lead at 50 – 44 and Ashland would not score again.

At the start of the game, it appeared Wahoo had control. A Shada three with 3:20 to go put Wahoo ahead 9-4 and the Warriors had a 13 – 9 lead at the end of the period. Back-to-back three’s by Simons and Cody Hesser opened the second period and Wahoo looked to be on its way to the win. But Ashland responded with two three’s and went on a 9 – 0 run that tied the game at 19. Another Shada three gave Wahoo the lead again at 22 – 19 and a Kip Brigham coast to coast layup put the Warriors ahead 24 -- 19. But the Blue Jays ran off another eight points, punctuated by a three pointer at the buzzer that put Ashland ahead at the half 27 – 24. Coach Bomar commented, “Our message at halftime was not to do more than what we normally do.  To stay within ourselves and not force the issue.”

Scoring slowed down in the third period with the Warriors netting only nine points including three-pointers from Hesser and Landon Glock. But Ashland was limited to eight points, so the Blue Jay lead was only two going into the fourth period.

Simons scored 13 of his game high 23 points in the final stanza, including 4 / 5 free throws. Shada converted 3 / 4 free throws in the fourth quarter to join Simons in double figures with 11. Both Simons and Shada were 2 / 2 on three pointers. Wahoo enters the home stretch of the regular season with a 14 – 3 record.

Noteworthy:
Leading Scorer: Dylan Simons 23 pts.; Rebounds -- Kip Brigham 5 ; Assists -- Dylan Simons 4 ; Steals-- Dylan Simons 2

Wahoo
freethrows: 10 / 14 71 % ; fieldgoals: 18 / 43 42 % ; three point: 7 / 14 50 %

Ashland CT
freethrows: 4 / 10 40 % ; fieldgoals: 17 / 37 46 %; three point: 6 / 15 40 %

I’m incredibly proud of our guys and their efforts in this game.  We knew that Ashland would be particularly motivated after we beat them earlier in the year.  We got out to quick lead, getting up 19 - 9 early in the second quarter.  I thought as long as we could maintain our defensive discipline, we could manage any run they might have, but we lost some guys after that in the half court and gave some shooters some open looks.  That lead evaporated quickly.  Kissinger then hit a 3 at the end of the half to put Ashland up 3.  We kind of just kept going back and forth in the 3rd.  We never really gained much ground but maintained.  Then we were able to put together some mini runs in the 4th to chip away and finally late in the 4th we grabbed the lead and got a couple of stops at the end to secure the victory.  Dylan led the way in scoring with 23 and Eli added 11.  As a team, I felt no matter who was on the court, we did a nice job defensively.  We knew this would be a race to 50.  We will have another big challenge on Thursday as we host Crete.

ASHLAND STATISTICS