Season comes to an end for Lady Pirates

RED OAK — The Gore Pirates basketball team split its games in the Class A District Tournament last weekend at Red Oak High School’s C.C. Gillespie Fieldhouse.

The Pirates beat Canadian 62-46 on Friday night but lost the district finals 75-28 to the host Red Oak Eagles on Saturday night.

As district runnersup, the Pirates (15-10) will enter this week’s Class A Regional Tournament at Gore Event Center on the consolation side of the bracket. Gore will meet Drumright at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Gore Event Center, then face the loser between Okay and Ripley in the consolation semifinals at 2:30 p.m. Friday with the winner playing for the consolation championship, and a spot in next week’s area tournament at Okmulgee, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. One more loss will eliminate the Pirates from the playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Lady Pirates, the postseason parade was a short one as they lost Friday night’s Class A District Tournament single-elimination game 55-50 to Canadian at Red Oak High School’s C.C. Gillespie Fieldhouse. The Lady Pirates end the season at 5-18.

In the boys’ district title game, the Eagles flew out to a 20-2 lead after a period and never looked back.

In defeat, Journey Shells and Burr Jaymes each scored seven points to lead Gore, followed by Cain Cooper and Keeton Rowe with five points each, Bryon McDuffie with three points and Nash Thouvenel with a free throw.

In the boys’ win over Canadian, the Pirates had a 17-10 lead after a quarter, a 38-19 halftime advantage and a 59-32 lead going into the final period.

For the game, Gore put a trio of players into double figures, led by Shells with 19 points and 12 points apiece from Cooper and Jaymes. Tate Brooksher had six points, followed by McDuffie and Nash Thouvenel with four points each, Ayden Cox and Bryson Thouvenel each with two points and Rowe with a free throw.

In the girls’ loss to Canadian, the Lady Cougars took a 15-10 lead after a period, which became a 29-16 halftime advantage and a 44-29 lead after three quarters. The Lady Pirates tried to mount a comeback, outscoring the Lady Cougars 21-11 in the final period, but their rally came up short.

In defeat, Kaitlyn Byrne had 14 points and River Shoemake added 11 points to lead Gore with 14 points each, followed by Emily Daily with nine points, Ricki Huckbay with six points, Paige Curran and Natalie Casteel with four points each and Rayleigh Moore with two points.