Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon Junior Teams Struggling As Well

Hope's junior teams proved to be too much for the Gurdon squads in the Blevins Junior Tournament last week.

Gurdon's boys and girls played back-to-back games against the Bobkittens and Lady Kittens Wednesday, Nov. 29, and were eliminated from the tourney.

LADY DEVILS 23

LADY KITTENS 37

Gurdon's involvement began with the junior girls game, with the Lady Kittens posting a 37-23 win.

The Lady Devils managed to stay fairly close in the first half, but Hope had a post player standing 6-3. This made it hard for Gurdon to penetrate the lanes.

Hope won the tip and drew first blood in the game. In fact, the Lady Kittens ran the score to 6-0 before Gurdon's offense got going.

The Lady Devils were aggressive on defense, but didn't know how to cope with the tall post player in the paint offensively.

But, late in the first period the Lady Devils found their stroke and cut Hope's lead to 10-7.

This inspired Gurdon, as the team turned up the heat and fought to a 13-10 lead with 3:30 showing.

However, the Lady Kittens had other plans and battled back to take a 16-15 lead at halftime.

Hope got the ball to open the third quarter, and pushed the lead to 20-15 as the Lady Devils had gone cold during the break.

Period three ended with Hope leading 26-17.

Despite the cold shooting and lack of inside game, the Lady Devils kept fighting, trying to chip away at the Hope lead.

The two coaches cleared their benches, making sure everyone got into the game, as the Lady Devils were simply unable to overcome the size difference.

GURDON 33

HOPE 53

Hope never let the junior Devils get in the flow of the game, as they jumped out to a 13-1 lead in the first five minutes of the contest.

The Kittens won the tip, but Gurdon scored first on a free throw.

This was the only time Gurdon would lead in the game, and this came at the 5:32 point of the first with a 1-0 score.

From there, the Kittens ran off 13 unanswered points, as Hope was able to convert and Gurdon was frigid from the field.

Gurdon's biggest problem wasn't shooting, though, but turnovers. The Devils coughed the ball up several times allowing Hope to build a 15-3 lead in the first period.

The second quarter was more of the same, which was bad for Gurdon.

Both teams ran helter-skelter up and down the floor, but the Kittens managed to score where Gurdon didn't.

At the 4:31 point of the second Hope was in the bonus situation shooting one-and-one, while leading 18-6.

Less than a minute later Gurdon joined in the bonus round, but had fits putting free throws in the basket.

With 3:27 showing the Kittens were up 22-6. Gurdon outscored Hope 8-5 for the rest of the half.

The pace continued after the break, with both teams keeping the floor hot.

The Kittens began pressing Gurdon, forcing turnovers and keeping the Devils from even getting close to shooting.

Still, the Devils refused to quit and cut the lead to 29-20 with 3:26 left in the period.

However, Hope rallied and pushed the lead back to double-digits at 34-20 with 2:27 left, and stretched this to a 41-25 lead when the buzzer sounded ending the third quarter.

By the 4:46 mark of the final six minutes, Gurdon was in the bonus situation once again, but still having trouble converting free throws.

For the most part, the two teams swapped buckets, with Hope finding the bottom of the bucket more often in posting the 53-33 win and eliminating the Devils from the tourney.