Cave City snaps Pirates' 10-game winning streak

GOSNELL--The last time the Gosnell Pirates played in front of their home fans, they lost to the Brookland Bearcats one month ago on November 20th.

They were 1-2 with both losses coming against 3-4A competition.

Since then, they hit the road for 10 straight games in less than four weeks, winning all 10 including their first 3-4A contest on Tuesday at Highland. Needless to say, the Pirates should have been anxious Thursday night to show their home crowd their improved play against Cave City.

However, the Cavemen ruined the Pirates homecoming with a 72-65 win, snapping Gosnell's winning streak and sending them into the two-week layoff for the Christmas break with a bad taste in their mouth.

"I'm frustrated," said Pirate head coach Kirk Glintborg. "We've been away from home for so long, we wanted to play great in front of our fans. I think we disappointed them tonight."

Cave City never trailed in the game but they never could put the finishing touches on the Pirates until the closing moments of the game. Gosnell struggled to get anything going offensively and, when they did, they couldn't get the ball to fall through the hoop.

"When you don't make shots, you can't win. Especially against good teams," said Glintborg.

Especially frustrating was Gosnell's performance at the foul line. The Pirates made just 11 of 22 shot attempts while the Cavemen attempted nine more and made 21 of their 31 attempts, including 12 of 15 in the fourth period. Seth Downs made eight of his 11 points at the foul line all in the second half and never missed, including four down the stretch in the fourth.

Gosnell (11-3, 1-3 3-4A) had its chances. Time after time, the Pirates cut eight- or nine-point leads down to two our three with their usually effective pressure defense. But time and time again, the Cavemen had an answer and never let the Pirates tie or take the lead, usually by getting to the free throw line and hitting the shots or getting it to their big man, 6-foot-8 inch center Chaz Matthews. Matthews led the Cavemen with 27 points on the night, including 12 in the fourth.

"We didn't necessarily play that bad, we just couldn't finish at the basket," said Glintborg. "We were able to get out and run like we like to do but we just couldn't sustain anything."

In a play that summed up the Pirates night of frustration, Richard Razor was fouled as the horn sounded in the first half on a full court shot attempt sending him to the line for three shots and a chance to cut the Cavemen lead to four. Uncharacteristically, Razor missed all three shots and Cave City took a 28-21 lead into the break.

Razor did lead all scorers with 30 points but like the rest of his team, the timing just wasn't right all night.

The Cavemen held Gosnell's high-scoring point guard, Tre Howe, to just 10 points as Howe struggled to find his shot as well.

"Tre's (Howe) been scoring so much for us lately, I think maybe his legs might have been a little tired."

Howe managed to dish out 11 assists to give the senior guard another double-double on the year.

Cave City took a 43-36 lead into the fourth period and extended their lead to 12 at 52-40 with 5:40 to play in the game with a three-pointer from Grant Wheeling. Rod Jones and Razor responded with three-pointers and Allen Montezuma hit five points off of the bench over the next three minutes to cut the lead to 60-56 with just under three to play. Gosnell got as close as three with a Montezuma basket with 1:40 to play but Downs and Wheeling hit five of six foul shots down the stretch to keep the Pirates at arms length and escape with the victory.

While Glintborg wasn't making any excuses, it seemed pretty apparent that the hectic schedule the Pirates have had over the past three weeks may have finally caught up with them and the two weeks off came right at the right time.

"I hate losing like this at home and not get a chance to play for another two weeks but maybe this was good for us," said Glintborg. "We've played a lot and used up a lot of energy. Fourteen games in a month, that's over half of our season. It also hurts that this was another conference game."

The Pirates play again on Jan. 3 at Valley View.

For the game, along with Razor's 30 and Howe's 10, Will Rose chipped in 11 despite being plagued with foul trouble all night.

Matthews led the Cavemen with 27, Wheeling added 14 and Downs' 11 rounded out the top scorers for Cave City.

JUNIOR HIGH

Gosnell 49, Cave City 46

The Gosnell Junior Pirates picked up their first win in conference 3-4A play with a 49-46 win over Cave City Thursday night.

The Pirates (8-4, 1-3 3-4A) led 15-9 after one, 27-25 at halftime and 37-36 heading into the fourth.

Marcus McClain the Pirates with 13 points and Shaheim Dodd and Tramaine Anderson each scored 11 points a piece in the win.

FROM 12-19

Nettleton Holiday

Tournament

Gosnell 41, Paragould 39

The Gosnell Junior Pirates advanced to the semifinals of the Nettleton Holiday Tournament after a 41-39 win over 5A Paragould Wednesday night.

Carlos Blackmon led the Pirates with 11 points and Marcus McClain chipped in 10. The Pirates take on Nettleton at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon in the semifinal game.