Defense has been the ticket all season for Cassville, allowing less than 50 points per game on average, but the train line came to a stop last week against an Aurora team with a hot second half of shooting.

The Wildcats (13-15) were the No. 3 seed in the Class 2, District 12 tournament, defeating No. 6 Mt. Vernon, 37-31, to set up a clash with No. 2 Aurora on Wednesday.

Four minutes into the game, only 4 points had been scored. Steals and stellar defensive play kept shot opportunities low. Near the end of the first, Caleb Leach stole a bobbling ball in the paint and put Cassville on the board, down 9-2 after the first eight minutes.

The second quarter opened up a bit. Cassville fell behind by as much as 10 before a late run to cut the lead to 16-12 at the break.

“Our guys deserve a great deal of credit for the defense they played,” said Caleb Reynolds, Cassville boys basketball coach. “We allowed 49.6 points per game this season, which is the lowest opponents scoring average since at least 2008-2009 for Cassville, so our guys were accustomed to playing in that type of grind-it-out game. Nothing really changed from the first half to the second. They had a player get hot and make some tough contested jump shots. Even then, our guys’ defensive effort never wavered.”

The Wildcats came out of the locker room with a fury, with Leach tying the game at 16. Aurora, however, took a timeout and found composure, going on a 9-0 by taking advantage of Cassville turnovers. At the end of three, the Houn’ Dawgs led 32-21.

“There were a handful of things that swung the momentum in their favor,” Reynolds said. “We were having a tough shooting night, but we’re not an incredibly high-scoring team anyway, so we still felt confident about how things were going. The technical we received late in the third quarter hurt, especially after the opposing player threw an elbow at us and then made a disrespectful gesture toward our player in that sequence, and our player was penalized with a technical for clapping his hands.

“They made both technical free throws and scored on the ensuing possession, so we went from being down 2 to being down 7 in a matter of seconds. However, after that, they had a player get hot from 3, and he made three or four contested 3-pointers in a row. He deserves a lot of credit for that. That essentially put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter.”

That result, Reynolds hopes, will be a motivator to future Wildcats.

“I think just the experience of having been in a situation like that — where the season is on the line and some things affect the momentum of the game that are 100 percent out of our control — having gone through that will make us better prepared to deal with adversity in the future,” he said.

That future will benefit from any experience, as only three underclassmen saw significant time on a senior-heavy squad this season.

“With seven seniors on the roster, we didn’t ask a great deal from our underclassmen this season at the varsity level,” Reynolds said. “Juniors Jon Dunbar and Trevin Baker, and sophomore Eli Stokes, were the only non-seniors to play significant regular varsity minutes. Our JV team finished 13-8 this year, and we really like the chemistry that group has. Several of them saw limited varsity minutes throughout the season as well, so we’re confident their experiences this year will lead a successful season next year.”

Looking back on this season, Reynolds said most of his players reached their personal goals.

“The top priority though was to ensure that we were playing our best basketball at the end of the season, and I believe we accomplished that goal,” he said. “The biggest area we improved in was just believing that we could win games and going out on the court and being competitive. The last few years had been pretty tough, and it was obvious when we first started working out last summer that we needed a little positive culture change. This year’s team definitely took big steps in developing a competitive, winning culture here.”

Steps forward are good, but Reynolds said, like any coach, some areas can use work.

“In some ways, you always feel like your team could have been better in all aspects,” he said. “There are no perfect teams. Overall though, we’re pleased with the progress that was made this season, and we feel that we’re in a good position to continue that improvement next year.”

Leaving the program behind will be a class of seven seniors: Aidan Cook, Mason Gautney, Caleb Leach, Peter Littlefield, Hernan Hernandez, Isaac Hadlow and Ethan Lamborn.

“It would be impossible for me to truly give this group of seniors enough credit for the work they’ve done and the foundation they’ve laid to help turn Cassville basketball into a winning program,” Reynolds said. “Their desire to win and see the team succeed, their leadership and their work ethic are what drove our successes this season. They definitely left this program in a better place than where they found it.”

They also brought plenty of excitement along the way.

“There are several moments that stand out [this season, like] Aidan Cook blocking a 3-point attempt in the closing seconds to seal a win at Mt. Vernon; Hernan Hernandez hitting a late shot to force overtime and pick up a win at Pierce City; Peter Littlefield pulling down nine rebounds including one on the final defensive possession of the game to help us hold on to win at Monett; and Caleb Leach drilling back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter to help seal the program’s first postseason win since 2011,” Reynolds said.

That high level of play was not limited to seniors either.

“Jon Dunbar scored 17 points in the second half against Southwest to lead us to a come-from-behind win,” Reynolds said.

Coaches hope next season, the excitement and work put into a winning culture will hold steady when it comes time to set goals.

“We don’t have any specific goals yet for next season,” Reynolds said. “Our team will sit down together next November and discuss those. In general, as a coach, I want to see continued growth individually and as a team, and I want to see the culture continue to improve and evolve as the years go by.”