MHS pours it on in 4th quarter against Plateau Valley
Friday in Collbran Meeker found themselves down early in the contest as the green and white cowboys started with a 15-10 first quarter lead. Mora and Grundy led the scoring for the home Cowboys while Meeker was led by Trey Morris’ 6 points. The second period was a match score for both teams. Grundy paced his Cowboys again with six points in the quarter while Jake Nieslanik and Cole Steiner kept Meeker in striking distance with four points each. Meeker found themselves down 22-27 at the half. Plateau lengthened their lead slightly in the third period as Grundy continued to keep his team on the scoreboard with eight of his team’s 16 third quarter points. Ryan Wix and Nieslanik scored five and four respectively of Meeker’s 11 points. One of the old adages about basketball is that free throws win ballgames and this proved true for Meeker’s ‘Pokes. Time and again Meeker went to the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Of Meeker’s 30 free throw attempts in the game, 23 were in the final period. The Cowboys connected on 13 of them which aided in the 29-point quarter. Unable to keep pace, Plateau Valley was only able to counter with 14 total points in the quarter. Meeker erased the deficit and went on to post a solid 62-57 victory. Grundy and Mora led Plateau Valley with 22 and 15 points respectively while Steiner, who was 10-14 from the free throw line, led Meeker with 18, and Morris added 17.
The Paonia Eagles flew into town on Saturday. After the first period, Meeker opened up a slim lead, 14-11, again behind Morris’ and Nieslanik’s five points each. The second quarter belonged all to Meeker as the Cowboys’ aggressive man-to-man defense stifled the scoring attempts of the visiting Eagles. Meanwhile, the ‘Pokes had no problem scoring on their own as they ended the quarter with a 19-3 advantage en route to opening up a 33-14 halftime lead. Both teams traded points in the second half. Meeker was neither able to open up on their lead, nor was Paonia able to close the gap on the Cowboys. Meeker ended the game with a convincing 55-35 victory. Penny was the leading scorer for the Eagles with 11, while the Cowboys were led by Steiner with 17 and Wix with 13.
Meeker will have played cross-county rivals the Rangely Panthers on Tuesday here in Meeker and will travel to Vail Mountain on Friday for this week’s games.
Meeker 10 12 11 29 – 62
Plateau Valley 15 12 16 14 – 57
Meeker
Morris 3,3,6,2,17 – Mobley 1,0,0,0,2 – Nieslanik 5,0,3,1,11 – Steiner 4,0,14,10,18 – Walsh 0,1,2,1,5 – Eli 1,0,0,0,2 – Wix ,0,5,2,8
Plateau Valley
Schuman 1,0,0,0,2 – Castro 4,0,0,0,8 – Grundy 9,1,1,1,22 – Langley 2,0,2,0,4 – Mora 7,0,3,1,15 – Vivian 1,0,4,4,6
Meeker 14 19 9 13 – 55
Paonia 11 3 9 12 – 35
Meeker
Morris 1,3,1,1,12 – Mobley 1,0,0,0,2 – Nieslanik 3,1,6,2,11 – Steiner 4,3,1,0,17 -Wix 6,0,2,1,13
Paonia
Escher 4,0,3,1,9 – Penny 1,3,2,0,11 – Roeber 1,0,0,0,2 – Walters 3,0,0,0,6 – Kropp 1,0,2,0,2 – Ford 2,0,2,1,5
