FORT GIBSON — Momentum can shift quickly in a high school basketball game as the Fort Gibson boys happily discovered Thursday night.

With the score tied at 30-30 and time running out in the first half, the Tigers took advantage of back-to-back turnovers by Hilldale and scored twice in a 40-second span that pushed Fort Gibson to a 34-30 advantage en route to a 72-55 victory against the Hornets at Harrison Field House.

“Those turnovers really got us going,” Fort Gibson coach Gary Hendrix said. “They were a big key. When you have a lead, you kind of dictate what other team has to do. They had to come get us after that because we were scoring.”

After the first turnover, freshman Jordan London sank one of his three 3-pointers in the first half with 43.4 seconds left and Steven Lanham made a layup with 3.0 seconds remaining after the second turnover.

London had nine points at half and Lanham finished with six through the first two periods.

Hilldale coach Jeremy Rogers thought his team had momentum — until those closing seconds.

“Mental mistakes led to baskets for them,” he said. “That gave them a little more energy into the second half.”

Hilldale’s Dylan Rowan, who was 8-of-13 from the field for a team-high 16 points, agreed.

“We don’t need to be turning it over in the second quarter,” he said. “We have to play well the whole game.”

The Tigers were also energized by their 3-point shooting, hitting 10 of 21 shots from beyond the arc. London was 3-of-5, while Collin Abdallah was 5-of-10.

“I don’t have much height (5-foot-8) so I guess I have to shoot from outside,” Abdallah said. “The shots were just falling.”

Abdallah and Jordan Hill led the Tigers with 17 points each, while Thomas Keith, Lanham and London added 11 each as the Tigers improved to 12-9. The 6-5 Keith had a game-high nine rebounds.

Fort Gibson withstood Hilldale’s strong start. The Hornets jumped out to 12-2 lead and led 17-13 after the first period and led 27-22 with 3:04 left in the first half before Fort Gibson came back to take the lead.

Tony Cabrera had 15 points and Bill Muse, Jr. finished with 14 on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc for the Hornets (11-9).

FGHS capped a sweep of the season series having won at Hilldale 66-43 on Jan. 14.

Both Fort Gibson and Hilldale are on the court tonight at home as the Hornets play a Verdigris Valley Conference game against Miami and the Tigers clash with Keys.



Girls:

Fort Gibson 68,

Hilldale 17

Fort Gibson’s players wore pink for Breast Cancer Awareness, but they had the Lady Hornets seeing red with their 3-point shooting.

The Lady Tigers, ranked No. 1 in the Okrankings.com Class 4A poll, sank 11 of 33 shots from beyond the arc to win their 12th straight game and 20th overall in 21 games. The win also gives the defending state champions their eighth straight 20-win season as well as a sweep of Hilldale and an extension of a streak that dates to 1997.

Jodi Glover, Taylor London and Savannah Gray sank two 3-pointers each. The Lady Tigers’ starters were 9-of-22 in the first half.

“We shoot a lot of 3s every day in practice,” Fort Gibson coach Jerry Walker said. “It’s definitely part of our game. If you’re not going to come out and defend us, we’re going to shoot them. (All of my players) have the green light to shoot it.”

Julia Hill was the only Lady Tiger in double figures with 12 points as Walker cleared his bench in the second half. Thirteen other players scored at least one point in the romp.

Jessica Vanschuyver was the Lady Hornets’ leading scorer with 11 after fouling out with 58.3 seconds left in the game.