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(NewsDakota.com) The start of the 2012-13 Oakes High School boys basketball was not the way the Tornadoes wanted to get the season underway. Lead by Hankinson’s Carter Mauch’s 13 points, the Pirates earned their first victory of the season in District 1 play, and took down Oakes 45-36 on Friday evening.

Hankinson went out to an early 10-4 lead after the first eight minutes of the game, and pulled away to an 11 point lead at half. They outscored Oakes 12-11 in the third quarter, but the Tornadoes were able to win the final eight minutes 16-14. 

“I guess overall, we had a shaky first half, and you could tell that.” said Oakes head coach Brandon Bata. “The second half we came out like how we practiced and all in all played a solid second half. The only way we’re going to be able to compete in games is if we play together, and we will need to do that for sure on Saturday night.”

Oakes was lead by Bryce Meehl who scored 17.

Hankinson earned their first win of the season, and improves to 1-2, while Oakes starts the year with a 0-1 mark.

The Tornadoes are scheduled to play District 2 opponent Maple Valley on Saturday afternoon. The game between the Falcons and Tornadoes was set for Saturday night, however due to a potential winter storm, has been moved up to an approximate start time of 5 p.m. Coverage will start around 4:45 p.m on KDDR 1220 AM/95.9 FM and NewsDakota.com