Norman North take down Jays in tournament opener

Perhaps its a good thing the Guthrie boys basketball team plays in Class 5A.

The Jays opened the 51st McGuinness Classic, Thursday evening, with the Norman North Timberwolves and for the third time this season, Guthrie dropped a their contest to a Class 6A opponent. The Timberwolves poured in 24 points in the first three quarters, but poured another 24 in the fourth quarter en route to a 48-38 win.

The McGuinness Classic is the longest running boys tournament in the state. For game photos visit the GSP picture page.

Guthrie (4-3) will return to Bishop McGuinness, on Friday, with yet another 6A opponent in the Edmond North Huskies. The Huskies dropped their opening game to host McGuinness 43-38. Tip time will be 3:00 and regardless of Friday’s game the Jays will play, yep, another 6A school in either Yukon or Norman on Saturday.

The game saw numerous turnovers by the Wolves and cold shooting for the Jays. At the end of the first quarter, Guthrie held a slim 4-3 lead. However, North got the first bucket in the second quarter and never trailed again in the game.

Despite never regaining the lead, the Jays tied the game on three different occasions and never trailed by more than five points in the first half and were behind 14-12 at the break.

The third quarter played out much like the first half with North keeping their distance. Junior Codee Gross hit a lay-up to tie the game at 18-all, but North finished the quarter with a 6-2 run to lead 24-20.

North, however, came out in the fourth with a three-pointer and a lay-up in the first 55 seconds to quickly jump out to a 29-20 lead forcing Guthrie to call a time-out. North increased their lead up to as many as 13 points. The Jays could only get within eight points the rest of the way.

A total of 43 free throws were attempted with North hitting 17-of-22 (77%) while the Jays could manage just 10-of-21 (47%) from the stripe.

In the three losses this season for the Jays they are averaging only 37.6 points a game. In their four wins, against 5A competition, they are scoring 55.2 per contest.