MANNFORD — Last week was just one week, but it put the Mannford Pirate basketball team, including head coach Alex Moore, through the full emotional inventory of an entire basketball season — the kind of swings that test belief, expose fl aws, and still leave a team standing on a good solid deck, though it may be rolling a bit.
The Pirates came out of the week 1–1, now 7–6 overall and 4–3 in conference play, with a white-knuckle, buzzer-beater win over Cleveland on Tuesday, Jan. 13, and a humbling loss to Cushing on homecoming night three days later. It was a week of fi ght, foul trouble, fi nal-second heroics, and a friendly reminder that progress headed toward February is rarely a freebie and words that start with “F” occasionally come to mind.
Tuesday’s hosting of Cleveland was survival basketball.
Mannford got out of a tough one, with a 37– 36 win in a game that felt like it was played in a phone booth. Points were impossible to score, whistles blew constantly, and the Pirates spent most of the night tiptoeing around foul trouble. Three di erent Mannford players fi nished with four fouls, forcing Coach Moore into constant adjustment and placing a heavy reliance on defense to keep the game within reach.
Defense delivered. Cleveland, a team capable of putting points on the board, managed just 12 in the entire second half — and only four in the fourth. Every possession turned into a grind, every stop mattered, and Mannford kept showing up when they needed to most.
Logan Bynum led the Pirates in scoring, while Max Moore put together a rugged night inside with eight points and 11 rebounds. JJ Hindsman added eight points of his own, but none bigger than the last two. He also grabbed six rebounds, matching Bynum and Cooper Ausbern on the glass.
Hindsman's fi ngerprints were all over the fi nal moments. With Mannford clinging to a one-point defi cit late, he stepped in and absorbed a massive charge, then helped force another turnover to give the Pirates the ball back with nine seconds to play. The original set was designed for Moore, but Cleveland denied that option. The ball swung.
Hindsman took it, attacked, and buried the game-winner with four seconds on the clock.
It wasn’t drawn that way. It didn’t need to be, the Pirates scratched it out.
“It was a huge win for our guys and we just found a way to win it,” said Coach Moore, pointing to Hindsman’s energy and willingness to take, and dole out, punishment.
“He’s always willing to put his body on the line for our team.”
Friday night, the coin landed on the other face.
Facing another tough Tiger team, the one from Cushing, on homecoming, the Pirates never found their footing in a 63–40 loss — a game that felt longer than the fi nal score
suggested. It was the fi rst game this season where Mannford didn’t come out ready to play, something Coach Moore owned afterward.
“It was just a long night,” he said. “The fi rst game this year that we did not come out ready to play, and that is on me.”
Max Moore was steady amid the struggle, fi nishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and three steals. Hindsman chipped in nine points, while Landon Owens worked relentlessly inside, pulling down 14 rebounds and adding three steals.
The e ort was there in spots. The Pirates hauled in 22 o ensive rebounds as a team.
They simply couldn’t turn those extra chances into points.
“We missed a lot of shots that we should have converted on,” Moore said. “We just did not fi nish. And give credit to Cushing. They are much improved since Christmas. They had a good game plan and they executed it.”
The contrast between the two nights was sharp — a last-second win forged by defense, rhythm and belief, followed by a reminder that details and preparation matter just as much.
Now the Pirates turn the page as they travel to Perkins on Tuesday, Jan. 20, before heading into the Pryor Tournament, Jan.
22–24. The Pirates open tournament play Thursday against Oologah at 5:30 p.m., another chance to stack lessons, sharpen habits, and keep pushing forward.