Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Home court not friendly for Devils

Four games made for a busy night of basketball for the Go-Devils who had their hands full with the visiting Prescott Curley Wolves.

They got off to a great start with the seventh grade girls team picking up a 25-9 victory.

Next the junior high boys team got a turn to show their stuff. It was a back and forth match-up from the start, but Prescott had a 11-8 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Cubs built on the lead and pulled further ahead with a score of 22-16 going into the half.

The Go-Devils came out in the third quarter causing and capitalizing on numerous turnovers and tying the score at 26. The Devils hit the Wolves with a flurry of scoring which forced Prescott to call a time out to think things over. From there it was back and forth and Gurdon led 34-32 going into the final quarter of play. The Go-Devils tried to run down the clock while maintaining a lead. Gurdon widened the gap and never looked back winning 50-40.

The senior high teams were not as lucky.

In the Lady Devils game, Prescott pulled out to a 6-0 lead and dominated the first quarter. By the start of the second quarter the Lady Wolves were leading 21-3 and kept pounding Gurdon throughout the quarter. At the end of the half Prescott led 35-14.

Gurdon came out scoring in the third quarter, but unfortunately the Wolveerettes did as well. Prescott was relentless and led 48-28 at the end of the third. In the fourth, Gurdon narrowed the lead, but it was too late and the Wolverettes won 61-49.

The Go-Devil boys suffered the same fate as the girls. The Wolves quickly pulled ahead 14-4 and by the end of the end of one Prescott led 18-9.

Gurdon turned the ball over many times in the second quarter and the Wolves took advantage, leading 32-22 at the half.

Prescott kept the pressure up in the third, scoring at will. One of Gurdon's top scorers of the night, Randy Bell, got a technical foul and left the game. Bell had 15 points on the night. However, Lavon Laster picked up the slack in scoring in the fourth quarter. Despite his 22-point performance in the game, he could not bring Gurdon back and they lost 66-48.

It was another rough night for the Go-Devils on Jan. 23 when they faced the visiting Nevada Blue Jays.

Only one team came out with a win and it was a big one. The 4-8 junior high Lady Devils took the court first. They broke out with a 6-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.

The junior high ladies, who led 9-2 in the first quarter, widened the gap to 25-6 to close the half because of fast breaks and offensive rebounding. In the third quarter, the Devils kept up their excellent play, leading 34-10 at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Once the ladies had a 28 point lead, the second string team was called in and they had success until the final whistle sounded with a score of 41-10 in favor of the junior high Lady Devils.

The senior high Lady Devils were not as lucky though. From the opening minutes, the Lady Blue Jays took a 7-0 lead and built it to 19-6 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter Nevada dominated possession of the ball and ran down the clock. They went into halftime with a 36-8 lead.

The Lady Devils came out playing sloppy in the third quarter and Nevada took advantage, running up the score to 48-14. It was more of the same in the final quarter as the Lady Devils took a tough 56-17 beating.

The 8-9 Go-Devils took the court for the last game of the night. The first quarter was slow going for both teams and Nevada managed to get up 9-7. In the second quarter the Jays widened that lead to 32-19.

Gurdon slowly started to gain momentum in the third quarter. Roman Montgomery got the crowd on its feet with a slam-dunk on a fast break to end the quarter, but the Devils still trailed 53-40.

Nevada started the fourth quarter trying to run the clock down, but the Go-Devils built up momentum off of turnovers and drew within three points. The pace quickened and the crowd got pumped as Gurdon tied the score at 63-63 with under 30 seconds left in the game.

With just seconds left a Nevada player was fouled and sent to the line. Fortunately for the Devils he missed both and sent the game into overtime.

Unfortunately for the Devils, Nevada pulled away in the extra quarter and defeated Gurdon 77-70 in an exciting match up.

Lavon Laster led the Go-Devils in scoring with 18 on the night.