Pirates rout Atkins for first win of the season

The Gosnell Pirates earned their first win of the season, Saturday, cruising past Atkins, 57-40, in the Chickasaw Classic at Blytheville’s Chickasaw Arena.

Gosnell’s Parker Wells gave the Pirates a spark off the bench, scoring 17, including draining five three-pointers.

Wells knocked down four three-pointers in the second half, as Gosnell (1-3) outscored Atkins 32-17 in the final two quarters to pull away. Atkins jumped out to an 11-2 lead early in the game, but Gosnell’s Devin Spicer swished a three-pointer with 2:31 left in the first to start a 12-2 Pirate run.

The Pirates held a 14-13 edge going into the second quarter, and they led 25-23 at halftime. Gosnell outscored Atkins 18-9 in the third quarter. Ethan Suthern’s three-pointer started a 9-0 run, and Wells’ triple increased the advantage to double digits, 39-29, with 1:54 left in the third quarter. Wells drilled another three with 10 seconds to play to push the lead to 14, but Atkin’s Jakob Riffel answered with a buzzer-beating three to cut the Gosnell lead to 43-32 going into the fourth quarter.

Wells opened the fourth with another three-pointer that started a 10-3 run and gave Gosnell its largest lead of the contest to that point, 53-35, with 4:51 to play. The Pirates would lead by as much as 20 down the stretch.

Behind Wells, TJ Reed had 10 points, Spicer six, Floyd Williams, Tadarian Partee and Rylan Jenkins four each, Maurion Hattiex and Suthern three each, and Daniel Sullivan, and Charles Kennemore two apiece.

The Pirates were scheduled to travel to Piggott Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time.