The Gans Lady Grizzlies will not go winless this basketball season.
The Lady Grizzlies got their first win of the campaign with a 31-26 Riverside Conference game victory over the Arkoma Lady Mustangs on Friday night at Bryant “Big Country” Reeves Fieldhouse.
The Lady Grizzlies fell in both of their other conference games last week, losing 54-25 at McCurtain on Jan. 14, then suffering a 4920 loss to the host Gore Lady Pirates on Thursday night at Gore Event Center.
The Grizzlies are still in search of their first win of the season as they went 0-3 last week in their Riverside Conference games, losing 64-17 to Gore on Thursday night and falling 4736 to Arkoma on Friday night after starting the week with a road conference loss at McCurtain on Dec. 14.
In the girls’ win over Arkoma, the Lady Grizzlies (1-12 overall, 1-6 in Riverside Conference play) trailed 13-10 after a quarter and 17-16 at the half, but they outscored the Lady Mustangs 8-7 in the third quarter to tie the game at 24-all going into the final period. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Grizzlies completed the comeback with a 7-2 fourth quarter to get the come-from-behind victory.
For the game, MaKinzie Kimble led Gans with seven points, followed by K’Cee Osborn and Maddie Freeman with five points each, Brighton Dorsey and Sophie Pulice each with four points and Madi Pilkington, Skylyn Bird and Aaliyah Taylor with two points apiece.
In the girls’ loss to Gore, the Lady Grizzlies had an 8-1 lead by the midway point of the opening period, only to see the Lady Pirates trim the Gans lead to 10-9 at the end of the quarter. After Makenzy Hunter’s free throw with 48 seconds left before halftime gave Gans a 17-16 lead, the Lady Grizzlies went the next 8:17 of game time scoreless and only scored three points total in the second half as Gore pulled away for the comeback win.
In defeat, Kimble led Gans with 10 points, followed by Osborn, Bird, Dorsey and Freeman with two points each and Hunter and Pulice with a free throw apiece.
In the boys’ loss to Arkoma, the Mustangs doubled up the Grizzlies (0-13, 0-7) over the first eight minutes to take a 16-8 lead into the second quarter, and the Mustangs never relinquished their lead from there.
In defeat, Austin Hines led Gans with 11 points, followed by Preston Bennett with eight points, Jarrett Frazier-Barret with five points, Jessie Phillips with four points, Aidan Garcia, Lucas Flute and Leland Locust with two points each and Bryce Stevens and Preston Moore with a free throw apiece.
In the loss to Gore, the Pirates scored the first four points of the opening period en route to a 17-6 lead after the first quarter.
The Pirates continued pulling away from the Grizzlies as Gore outscored Gans 15-4 in the second quarter to go into halftime ahead 3210 en route to a 44-15 advantage heading into the final period.
In defeat, Hines led Gans with eight points, followed by Phillips with four points, Frazier- Barret with three points and Jasper Green with two points.
There was no further information reported on the Dec. 14 games at McCurtain by press time.
