The Gore High School basketball teams opened their 2023-24 season by splitting their season-opening road games against Porum.
The Pirates made the Panthers walk the plank to the tune of a 51-42 victory, but the Lady Panthers clawed the Lady Pirates 66-25.
Then, the Gore cagers had back-to-back games to end last week, Friday night at McCurtain and the home openers Saturday afternoon.
In Friday’s road games, the Gore teams were swept as the host Bulldogs beat the Pirates 65-50 and the Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Pirates 67-41.
In Saturday afternoon’s home openers at Gore Event Center, Gore’s boys won their “Battle of the Pirates” with Porter Consolidated with a 45-21 victory. However, the Muskogee County visitors took the girls game 35-29.
In the boys’ seasonopener, the Pirates (2-1) trailed 9-6 after a period, but, thanks to an 11-9 second quarter, they were to cut their deficit to 18-17 at halftime. After entering the fourth quarter trailing 33-32, the Pirates outscored the Panthers 19-9 to get the come-from-behind victory.
For the game, Cain Cooper and Tate Brooksher each scored 15 points to lead the Pirates, followed by Journey Shells with nine points, Burr Jaynes with six points, Noah Thouvenel with four points and Bryon McDuffie with two points.
In the girls’ seasonopening contest, the Lady Pirates (0-3) kept things close in the first half, trailing 8-7 after a quarter and 22-16 at halftime. However, the Lady Panthers put the game away with a 19-0 third quarter to take a 41-16 lead into the fourth period.
In defeat, Oaklei Thornton led the Lady Pirates with five points, followed by Ricki Huckbay and Emily Daily each with four points, Kaitlyn Byrne with three points, Gracie Bruce, Lily Wooten, Andi Summerlin and Natalie Casteel with two points each and Rayleigh Moore with a free throw.
In the boys’ loss to McCurtain, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 17-10 lead after a period, but the Pirates cut their deficit to 25-22 at halftime. McCurtain’s 18-13 third quarter increased the ’Dogs’ lead to 43-35 going into the fourth period where McCurtain outscored Gore 22-15 to keep the Pirates at bay.
In defeat, Brooksher led Gore with 20 points, followed by Cooper with 17 points, Shells with six points, McDuffie with three points and two points apiece from Jaynes and Keeton Rowe.
In the girls’ loss to McCurtain, the Lady Bulldogs clawed their way out to a 17-4 lead after a period, but the Lady Pirates outscored them 15-13 in the second quarter to cut their deficit to 30-19 at halftime. However, that was as close as the Gore girls got as McCurtain had a 13-8 third quarter and a 26-14 final period to win going away.
In defeat, Casteel led Gore with 18 points, followed by Moore with eight points, Summerlin with four points, Huckbay with three points and Thornton, Daily, Paige Curran and River Shoemake with two points apiece.
In the Gore boys’ home-opener victory, Gore jumped out to a 13-4 lead after a quarter, which became a 27-6 halftime advantage and a 39-18 lead going into the final period.
For the game, Shells scored a game-high 14 points and Cooper added 10 points to lead Gore, followed by Brooksher with eight points, McDuffie with five points, Thouvenel with three points, Jaynes and Ayden Cox with two points each and Dane Gates with a free throw.
In the Gore girls’ home-opener loss, Gore led 12-3 after a period, but were then outscored 15-8 in the second quarter by Porter Consolidated to see its lead cut to 20-18 at halftime. However, Porter Consolidated outscored Gore 7-2 in the third quarter and 10-7 in the final period to get the come-from-behind win.
The big factor in the game was while Porter Consolidated made 7-of-17 free throws, Gore was only 14-of-22 from the charity stripe.
In defeat, Daily led Gore with eight points, followed by Thornton, Moore and Summerlin each with five points, Huckbay with three points, Casteel with two points and Shoemake with a free throw.
