Barone Middle School nips Craig in seventh-grade game

MEEKER — All four Barone Middle School basketball teams played competitive games against the Craig Middle School Bullpups but only the seventh-grade B team was able to win on their home court last Saturday.
In the first meeting between the two middle schools, the BMS seventh-grade A team won and the B team lost, but this time it was reversed. The seventh-grade B team held off a Bullpup comeback to win 31-27, while the seventh-grade A team lost 14-16.
The seventh-grade B team led the whole game, 10-4 after the first quarter, 14-5 at halftime before taking an 18-13 lead into the final quarter, where they scored 13 points.
Jake Boesch and Fabian Jones led the B team with eight each, Bruno Juarez scored seven, Dylan Mobley finished with six and Kevin Eli added two.
The seventh-grade A team led until the third quarter but couldn’t hang on for the win. Jones and Bruno each scored four in the A game, while Boesch and Mobley each added three.
The BMS A team didn’t score a point in the first quarter and trailed 7-13 at halftime.
“Offensively the guys got off to a slow start but they had a good second quarter and outscored Craig,” eighth-grade coach Neil Joy said. “They had an awesome first half defensively, Wyatt Rowlett and Karch Bullard were great on defense.”
Bullard led the team with eight points, Rowlett and Ben Fitzgibbons each added three.
The eighth-grade B game needed three minutes of overtime to determine a winner. Craig took the game 24-16.
Craig came from behind, as BMS led 6-2 after the first quarter, 8-6 at half and a 16-10 lead going into the final quarter, where the Bullpups tied the game at 16 to send it into overtime.
“The last time they played Craig, we had a good lead going into the second half and ended up giving the game back to them so we tried to hold the ball for the entire second half,” Joy said. “We were very successful for one and a half quarters then we kind of fell apart at the end. We played great defense for four quarters.”
Alex Smith led the B team with 10 points and his twin brother Scott added five. Joey Scherbarth made a free throw.
“The Smith twins both had outstanding games offensively and defensively,” Joy said. “It was tough to lose a game like that.”
Meeker will play in Rangely this Saturday.