Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Free Throws End Gurdon's Basketball Season

Free throws are arguably the most important part of most basketball games.

Ask most coaches and they will say more games are won and lost at the charity stripe than anywhere on the court.

Gurdon's Go-Devils will also attest to this fact. In the opening round game of the class A state tournament at Flippin, the Devils saw Salem's Greyhounds sink 34 of 37 free throws as they posted a 68-59 win over Gurdon.

While Salem advanced in the tourney, losing in the second round, Gurdon's basketball season ended.

For most of the season, teams have not been able to run with Gurdon. However, the 'Hounds were more than willing to run. Salem held leads of 5-0 and 9-2 in the opening four minutes of the contest.

Gurdon found itself on the short end of a 12-4 score when Salem senior Casey Scribner nailed a trey with 3:15 showing. The Devils rallied, though, to cut the score to 14-10 at the end of one.

The Devils opened the second quarter well, going on a 5-0 run to take their only lead of the game at 15-14. Unfortunately, Salem responded by scoring the next six points to go up 20- 15.

The 'Hounds were able to run the score to 30-19 before the Devils tried to fight back late in the first half, which ended with the score 32-23.

From there on out, the Devils had to fight from behind, but Salem's light's out shooting at the stripe kept Gurdon at bay. At the end of three, the score was 48-40.

Gurdon was able to get within four, 50-46, early in the fourth quarter, but was unable to get over the hump and take the lead.

With the score 50-46, the 'Hounds nailed eight straight free throws to put the game on ice.

Eric Hatley led Gurdon with 22 points, including a pair of three-pointers. Marcus Wright and Chauncey Charles added threes as well.

Scribner paced Salem with 32 points, 19 coming from the line. Overall, Scribner was 19 of 21 in free throw attempts, and 9 of 10 in the fourth period alone.