Buckle up. If the upcoming Guthrie High School boys basketball season is any indication of the season opener than its going to be a crazy ride.
Guthrie got a put back shot from sophomore Bailey Nichols as the final buzzer sounded to take down 10th ranked El Reno, 43-41, in the season opener for the BlueJays.
Guthrie is now 1-0 on the season while El Reno drops to 1-1. Just last week El Reno defeated 9th ranked Duncan, 62-59, on the road.
Not only was it the season opener for the 13th ranked Jays, but it was the first road and conference game.
“The guys have not been in the gym for a while so we knew the first game was going to be ugly,” Jays head coach Pete Papahronis said following the win.
Papahronis continued by saying, “it was a great win for us. We are not happy with the way we played. We need to get into the gym and get better. It was good to get these first game jitters out-of-the-way.”
Leading by two (41-39)with less than 30 seconds left in the game, Guthrie missed two free throws, but Jays forward Sharon Parker corraled the offensive rebound. However, a turnover seconds later resulted in an Indians lay up to tie the game at 41-all. Guthrie immediately called their final time out with 6.8 seconds left on the clock.
Papahronis set up a play for junior guard Jerrick Warren to go the full length of the floor and create a shot. Warren took the pass and was met at the half court line by the defense, and once reaching the top of the key he had drawn a triple team. Warren forced up a desperation shot just below and to the left of the free throw line. The shot was to hard and miss everything, however, Nichols was all by himself under the bucket to collect the shot attempt and kissed it off the glass as the horn sounded inside Jenks Simmons Fieldhouse.
The game saw 11 lead changes four ties. Guthrie built a lead of seven-points in the second quarter and six-points in the third quarter, but the Indians were able to fight back each time to take the lead.
Senior Codee Gross finished with a game high 13-points, including a 3-pointer just before the first half ended to tie the game at 19-19, and again in the third quarter by drilling a shot with :02 left to again tie the game at 31-31.
“We faced adversity. We got some young kids, but Codee and Sharon have been in these type situations and have faced adversity before,” Papahronis said.
One of those young players is freshmen guard L’Liott Curry. On back-to-back possessions late in the fourth quarter, Curry grabbed two offensive rebounds and on each rebound was able to score on the put back. In each sequence, it gave the Jays the lead back.
Guthrie will be back on the road Friday for another North Suburban Conference match up in Piedmont. The game will be broadcasted on Triple Play Sports 105.1 FM and on Guthrie Sports Page beginning with the girls game at 6:15.
Guthrie Scorers: Codee Gross 13, Kai Callins 7, Shron Parker 6, Jerrick Warren 5, JT McFadden 4, Bailey Nichols 4 and L’Liot Curry
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