Narrow regional losses end Pirates’ stellar season

GORE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL

Narrow Class A regional losses to Liberty and Wright City ended Gore’s stellar season last week.

The Pirates (16-5 overall) lost 46-42 to Wright City (19-9) Friday at Indianola in a regional consolation semifinal game and on Thursday Gore fell 62-61 to No. 18 Liberty (19-5), which upended No. 2 Rattan 41-37 in the regional final Saturday.

Wright City 46, Gore 42 (regional cons. semifinal) The Lumberjacks slipped past the Pirates Friday night at Indianola in a Class A regional consolation semifinal game to end Gore’s season.

In the first stanza Gore’s Jackson Duke made a 3-pointer but Wright City went in front 10-7.

The Pirates trailed 20-19 at the half after outscoring the Lumberjacks 12-10 in the second period. Noah Cooper scored four of his game-high 24 points for Gore and Ben Kirkpatrick and Duke each hit a 3-pointer.

Cooper (13 points) knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter as Gore erased (13-11) the deficit to take a 3231 lead to the fourth frame.

In the final eight minutes Kirkpatrick and Cooper registered five points apiece but Wright City outscored the Pirates 15-10.

Also scoring for the Pirates in the game were Kirkpatrick (8), Duke (6) and Keigan Reid and Journey Shells (2 each).

Wright City’s top two scorers were Kase Lindly (13 points) and Kellan Lindly (10). The Lumberjacks lost 41-39 to Regent Prep in a regional consolation final game Saturday.

First-year Gore head coach T.W. Estes was disappointed in Friday’s outcome but proud of his team’s season.

“That was a tough one,” Estes said. “I knew after playing Liberty so close and getting beat by one that it was going to be an uphill battle. They do a really good job.

“Just felt like we came out a little bit flat the first half, low energy, and in the second half kind of picked it up a little bit and kind of got into go-mode.

“The ball just didn’t bounce our way. We were up one and missed a shot and they go down and score. A couple of times during that game we got lost in transition and just did some stuff that was pretty uncharacteristic of us. It was all a little bit leftover from the night before. To get beat out by a total of five points (two games) is tough.

“I thought our kids had a great season. I thought after getting a late start they came in and were excited about it and ready to go. We went into the Christmas break 4-0 and then go to the Sequoyah County Tournament and get beat by 3A Stigler and 3A Vian, which were two of our five losses. I thought they were eager and excited all year and it just seemed like it flew by.

“Couldn’t ask for a better group of kids. Those seniors really bought in and just trusted and tried to do what we do, which is sometimes not very typical of older kids. A lot of them want to graduate or whatever but those kids did whatever we asked them to.”

Liberty 62, Gore 61 (regional semifinal) The Pirates’ fourth-quarter rally fell two points short Thursday night inside the Gore Event Center as Class A No. 18 Liberty (19-5 overall) hung on to edge Gore (16-4) in an Area III regional semifinal game.

The visiting Tigers took a 44-36 advantage to the fourth quarter before the Pirates staged their comeback. Fifteen seconds into the period Gore’s Ben Kirkpatrick made his fourth 3-pointer of the contest and with 3:57 remaining his fifth trey cut the deficit to 1 (49-48). Liberty led 62-57 with 20 seconds to go before inside baskets by Journey Shells and Noah Cooper with nine seconds left made the score 62-61. After Liberty missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1.9 seconds remaining a desperation threequarter court shot by the Pirates was no good.

Gore’s leading scorers in the final frame were Kirkpatrick (three 3-pointers), Shells (three 2-point baskets), Kiegan Reid (5 points) and Cooper (3 points) and Trent Thompson (7 points) and Jarren Cargil (6) led the Tigers in scoring.

The Pirates got off to a fast start in the first eight minutes of the contest. Jackson Duke made a pair of wing 3-pointers from each side of the floor in the first 38 seconds before Kirkpatrick’s first trey at the 6:27 mark gave Gore a 9-0 advantage. Gore grabbed its biggest lead of the game (134) with 3:27 to go on Reid’s inside jumper and the Pirates ended the period with a 17-14 advantage following Liberty’s 10-0 run. Duke (6 points), Shells (4) and Kirkpatrick led Gore in scoring and Cargil registered nine of his game-high 25 points for the Tigers.

Liberty led 29-24 at the half after erasing (15-7) the deficit in the second stanza. Cooper (4 points) and Kirkpatrick (3) made a 3-pointer apiece for the Pirates and Cargil (two 3-pointers and 8 points) and Thompson (7 points) registered the Tigers’ points.

Four 3-pointers at the start of the third quarter allowed the Tigers to take their biggest lead (41-26) of the contest but back-to-back treys by Reid and Kirkpatrick trimmed six points off the deficit (41-32) at the 4:35 mark and the Pirates trailed by eight at the end of the period.

Kirkpatrick knocked down six 3-pointers and scored a teamhigh 18 points in the game and also registering points for the Pirates were Shells (12), Cooper (11) and Duke and Reid (10 each).

Trailing Cargil in scoring for Liberty were Thompson (17 points), Jayce Wheeler (10), Brandon Aguayo (6) and Barrett Brown and Brady Cornwell (2 each).