It was a rough beginning to the Class A playoffs for the Gore High School basketball teams as they both lost to the host Talihina squads in the Class A District Tournament title games Saturday night on Chris Gillespie Court at Ray Henson Gymnasium in Talihina.
The Lady Pirates suffered a 56-26 loss to the Lady Golden Tigers, then the Golden Tigers downed the Pirates 7347.
As district runnersup, Lady Pirates and Pirates will have an all-Riverside Conference match-ups in the Class A Regional Tournament consolation quarterfinals on Thursday night in Allen as the Lady Pirates will meet Arkoma Lady Mustangs at 6 p.m., while the Pirates will meet the Arkoma Mustangs at 7:30 p.m.
One more loss by either the Lady Pirates and/or the Pirates will end their season.
To end the regular season, the Gore squads split home games with Panama on Feb. 9 at Gore Event Center, with the Pirates beating the Razorbacks 69-68 while the Lady Pirates fell 6249 to the Lady ’Backs.
In the girls’ district title game loss to Talihina, the Lady Golden Tigers scored the game’s first nine points of the game before the Lady Pirates (10-11) got on the board on a 3-point basket by Sophie O’Connor to cut the Talihina lead to 9-3 with 4:14 left in the first quarter. Unfortunately, that was as close as Gore got on the night.
The Lady Golden Tigers ended the period with a 12-5 run, capped by a basket by Kya Andrews with a second left, to put Talihina ahead 21-8 after the first eight minutes.
Talihina doubled Gore 12-6 in the second period to take a 3314 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.
Talihina built as much as a 30-point lead as a free throw by Jacy Moore with 58 seconds left put the Lady Golden Tigers ahead 56-26, which ended up being the final score.
In defeat, River Shoemake led Gore with nine points, followed by Emily Daily with eight points, Rayleigh Moore with four points, O’Connor with three points and Kennedy Williams with two points.
In the boys’ district title game loss to Talihina, a pair of Cain Cooper free throws put the Pirates (14-8) ahead 6-4 with 3:51 left in the first quarter. It ended up being Gore’s final lead of the night.
The Golden Tigers ended the period with a 11-1 run, capped by a free throw by Cy Ammons with 24 seconds left, to put Talihina ahead 15-7.
It just got worse for the Pirates as the Golden Tigers outscored them 20-11 in the second quarter to get their biggest lead of the first half at 35-18, which was the score at halftime.
The Golden Tigers got as high as a 27-point lead at 62-35 on a slam dunk by Cy Montgomery with 4:15 left to play in the game.
In defeat, Cooper scored 15 points to lead Gore, followed by Keeton Rowe with nine points, Tate Brooksher with eight points, Eli Munson with six points, Logan Markou with three points and Gabe Hefley, Kaiden Denton and Cruz Ward with two points apiece.
In the boys’ win over Panama, the Pirates rallied from a 50-46 thirdquarter deficit by using a 23-18 fourth quarter to snatch the win away from the jaws of defeat.
For the game, Cooper led Gore with 21 points, followed by Brooksher with 17 points, Munson with 14 points, Rowe with 10 points, Ward with three points and Hefley and Denton with two points apiece.
In the girls’ loss to Panama, the Lady Razorbacks, who trailed 21-19 after a period, outscored the Lady Pirates 43-28 over the final three quarters to get the comeback win.
In defeat, the Lady Pirates put a trio of players into double figures, led by Daily’s 13 points, followed by Moore’s 12 points and Shoemake’s 10 points. Williams had nine points, followed by O’Connor with three points and Alevia Reasnor with two points.
