THOMAS — The Hydro-Eakly boys won a road game at Thomas-Fay-Custer Tuesday night and a big reason for this win was outscoring the Terriers 13-2 at the end of the game.
The Bobcats won this game 67-46 and coach Rick Gore said it was a group effort and they overcame not playing great on defense.
“We did a great job on offense,” coach Gore said. “Now, we did give up some points, but we did some really good things tonight. It was good to see guys like Trenton Coe score a 3-pointer for us off the bench late in the game when we needed it. We do have to work on our defense a bit, but I am happy with the win.”
Hydro-Eakly outscored Thomas-Fay-Custer 12-2 in the first three minutes of the game. Thomas-Fay-Custer began scoring and Hydro-Eakly had the 24-11 lead going into the second quarter.
“We were ready to play,” coach Gore said. “We wanted to jump on them quickly and push the ball down the court fast. Thomas is a good and very physical team and we wanted to tire them out.”
Carson Propps was able to steal a pass and dunked the ball in the second quarter. Kolsen Tharp scored a 3-point shot, giving Hydro-Eakly a 32-13 advantage three minutes into the second quarter. Thomas-Fay-Custer outscored the Bobcats 9-2, making the score 34-22 with two minutes to play in the second quarter. However, Nolan Gore scored two fastbreak layups in the closing minute, giving Hydro-Eakly a 38-22 lead at halftime.
The Terriers kept the game close. The Bobcats tried expanding their lead but Thomas-Fay-Custer always responded with points. Hydro-Eakly still was ahead 54-38 going into the fourth quarter.
Thomas-Fay-Custer outscored Hydro-Eakly 6-0 to open the quarter, cutting the Bobcats’ lead to 10 with a little more than 5 minutes to play.
The Bobcats outscored Thomas-Fay-Custer 13-0 in the next three minutes, with plays like Nolan Gore hitting a 3-point shot then blocking a shot at the other end. Coe also hit a 3-point shot to help put the game away. Gore pulled his starters with less than two minutes to play and Hydro-Eakly won the game 67-46.
“The guys just found their way,” coach Gore said. “However, if we get stops, we will not be in that situation of having to step up big on offense in order to put the game away. We need to make more stops and improve our defense, which we will do.”
Nolan Gore scored 24 points, Propps scored 18 points and Paxton Price scored 13 points.
Thomas-Fay-Custer’s Camden Billy scored 13 points. Billy scored six points in the first quarter and coach Gore said it presented some challenges to guard him.
“Camden Billy, their big man, had a big game, which gave us some fits,” coach Gore said. “We tried double teaming him, but he is a good athlete and still found ways to score. In the second half, we did a much better job stopping him from scoring.”
Hydro-Eakly improves to 18- 3 on the season and will play 6:45 p.m., Saturday against Lookeba-Sicklesat SWOSU. Hydro-Eakly beat Lookeba-Sickles earlier this season 60- 45.
“Lookeba-Sickles has a good team, as do we,” Gore said. “We will work on defense and look at the scouting report. They have gotten better, and we have too, so Saturday should be a great game.”