Barone Middle School basketball season under way

MEEKER I The Barone Middle School boys’ basketball season has begun. They have two games under their belts going into this weekend, with home games scheduled. The seventh and eighth grade teams began their season against a tough Rangely team, dropping three games to the strong Panther offense.
The seventh graders worked extremely hard in their games, behind the work of point guard Logan Hughes and speed of Doke Mantle and Jake Pelloni. The team came up short but gained valuable playing time for all the participants.
The eighth grade team had only one game to play all their kids and aggressive defense by the Cowboys kept the game close. It is clear they are building team skills and putting their practices to use at game time.
Tuesday night they hosted a talented team from Grand Valley and although the eighth grade B team was the only team to come out with a win with two threes from Austin Russell and tremendous defense from Sheridan Harvey. Pulling strong rebounds were Caleb Bradford, Layton Bair and Clay Anderson who also played outstanding fundamental defense in both the A and B games.
Great court experience was gained by the junior high teams. The eighth grade A team was down 20-10 at the half but made defensive adjustments to shut down the leading scorer with tighter defense and played an 8-4 second half. Outstanding hustle was the theme of all the teams, and many shots were taken that just didn’t fall for the Cowboys.
They look forward to another set of home games for the weekend and both teams are on track for an exciting season. New coaches Matty Garr and Steve Gantt bring excitement and good participation to the court and have the kids playing hard on every possession.