The 2024-25 basketball season came to an end Friday night for both Gans basketball teams as they lost their Class A District Tournament games to Porum in Weleetka after losing their Senior Night contests to Riverside Conference and country rival Gore on Feb. 10 at Bryant “Big Country” Reeves Fieldhouse.
In Friday night’s season-ending playoff games against Porum, the Lady Grizzlies lost 53-27 to the Porum Lady Panthers, then the Panthers ended the winless season for the Grizzlies with a 48-27 victory.
In the regular-season finales on Senior Night on Feb. 10 against Gore, the Lady Grizzlies lost 51-26 to the Lady Pirates, then the Grizzlies were tamed by the Pirates by the score of 42-25.
In the girls’ playoff loss to Porum, the Lady Grizzlies (4-20) fell behind 18-6 after a quarter and never recovered.
In defeat, K’Cee Osborn, playing her final game for Gans, led the Lady Grizzlies with 10 points, followed by Maddie Freeman with nine points, Madi Pilkington with four points and Skylyn Bird and Sophie Pulice with two points apiece.
In the boys’ playoff loss to Porum, the Grizzlies (0-23) fell behind 14-6 after a quarter, trailed 32-14 at the half and 43-22 after three periods.
In defeat, Austin Hines led Gans with 10 points, followed by Tae-Shawn Achan with eight points, Gabriel Christopherson with three points and Cristian Gaona, Aidan Garcia and Jarrett Frazier-Barter with two points apiece. For seniors Achan, Christopherson, Frazier-Barter, they played their final games for Gans.
In the girls’ Riverside Conference loss to Gore, the Lady Pirates broke a 4-all tie with a 7-0 run to end the opening period ahead 11-4.
Gore doubled Gans 12-6 in the second period to up the Lady Pirates’ halftime advantage to 23-10.
The Lady Grizzlies went on a 9-3 run, capped by a basket by Pilkington, to cut Gore’s lead to 30-21 with 2:34 remaining in the period. However, that ended up being as close as Gans would get.
In defeat, Pilkington, Bird and Aaliyah Taylor all scored six points to lead the Lady Grizzlies (1-8 in Riverside Conference play), followed by Osborn with four points, Pulice with three points and Freeman with a free throw.
In the boys’ Riverside Conference loss to Gore, the Pirates scored the game’s first 12 points before the Grizzlies (0-9 in Riverside Conference play) saw Hines break the ice for the hosts with a 3-point basket with 1:17 left in the first quarter. Gore took a 14-3 lead after the first eight minutes.
Back-to-back 3s by Hines and Gaona cut the Gans’ deficit to 14-9 with 6:53 left before halftime. It ended up being as close as the Grizzlies got as they were blanked the rest of the second period by the Pirates, whose firsthalf ending 15-0 run put them ahead 29-9 at halftime.
In defeat, Hines scored a game-high 12 points to lead Gans, followed by Frazier-Barter with six points, Gaona with four points and Lucas Flute with three points.
