Cowboys win three, are Granby champs

MEEKER I The Meeker Cowboys traveled to Granby last weekend to participate in the Mountain Parks Electric High Country Invitational tournament. Meeker won all three games it played in the tournament to claim the champion trophy, beating Love Christian, West Grand and Middle Park.
In the first game against Love Christian, the Cowboys wasted little time exerting their dominance. Meeker opened up a 10-point first quarter lead and stretched that to a 20 point 41-21 halftime margin. The inside play of Colton Brown, Dakota Rowlett and Tyrel Gerloff provided the lion’s share of points for the Cowboys. In the second half, all but two of the Cowboys put points on the scoreboard and were led by Mitch Jacobs’ eight points in the third quarter. Meeker won the first round contest 87-38. Balanced scoring for Meeker was the name of the game with Brown and Cole Steiner leading the way with 13 and 12 points each.
The second game was against league foe West Grand of Kremmling. Meeker’s defense wouldn’t allow the Mustangs to get anything going and started the game by opening the first quarter with an 18-7 lead and stretched that to a 41-11 halftime gap. Jacob and Rowlett provided the inside and outside punches for the ‘Pokes with 14 and 13 points, respectively, in the half. The third quarter was West Grand’s most productive quarter with 10 points, but Jacob countered that with 10 points of his own, Rowlett added six more as the onslaught continued. As in the first game, Coach Klark Kindler used all the varsity players on the team and the Mustangs could do little as Meeker won the second lopsided contest 76-28.
The final game of the tournament pitted the unbeaten Cowboys against the host Middle Park Panthers of Granby. Again, Meeker jumped to a quick 10-point lead on the strength of junior Steiner’s nine points. Meeker’s shooting cooled off in the second stanza and Middle Park was able to match the point output of the Cowboys as both teams could only post 10 points apiece. Meeker led at the break 25-14. Rowlett was able to find the range from outside in the third period as he paced the Cowboys with a couple of 3-pointers and Meeker extended its lead to 38-25. The host Panthers weren’t going to let their own tournament go away without a battle though as the Panther’s Eaton was gamely trying to get his team back into the contest as he scored 18 points himself in the final stanza for the Panthers. Meanwhile, Meeker could only count 10 points itself in the quarter, but proved to be enough as the final score ended 48-45.
Meeker’s Rowlett was named to a second consecutive all-tournament team as he followed up last week’s Cowboy Shootout award with this week’s High Country award. Meeker will now take the Christmas break off with the next game at home on Tuesday, Jan. 5. The Cowboys will put their perfect 8-0 record on the line against the visiting Roaring Fork Rams. Game time is set for 7 p.m.