Ladies split weekend

MEEKER I Friday night the Cowboys lined up against each other as Meeker hosted Plateau Valley, also home of the Cowboys. Meeker stretched out a comfortable lead after the first quarter and landed a victory, but Saturday at Paonia the girls had their work cut out for them. Neither night was a league-standing game.
Meeker started with a slow first quarter against Plateau Valley as they trickled out a five point lead 12-7. In the second quarter Meeker held Plateau Valley to only one basket while Meeker’s offense racked up 21 points. This was a second quarter trend for the weekend. The Lady Cowboys headed into the locker room 33-9 for halftime.
Meeker came out in the third quarter and began really tuning up their passing game. The girls cashed in eight buckets and a foul shot while only allowing seven points from their opponents. Meeker then extended their lead for an easy 62-24 win. Head coach Greg Chintala felt the team “came out a little sluggish, but then picked up their effort.”
“Overall it was a good execution of the game,” Chintala noted of both the JV and varsity for the evening. Meeker’s junior varsity also met up with the Plateau Valley Cowboys on Friday to add another easy win to their record.
With no time to start slowly, the Lady Cowboys shot out with both barrels blazing as they met up with the Eagles in Paonia on Saturday, Jan. 14. Immediately off of the jump ball Meeker drained a three and on the return trip to offense added a bucket for a 5-0 lead in the first 25 seconds. After a defensive battle, Paonia finally answered with a couple baskets of their own. Then the score seesawed back and forth until Paonia inched ahead. Meeker ended the first quarter down 12-19.
Like the previous evening, the Lady Cowboys held their opponents to only two points in the next quarter. Both of those points were foul shots. Meeker bounced back in the second quarter with a tremendous show of tenacity as they added 18 points to the visitor side of the scoreboard to lead at halftime 30-21.
The third quarter was a short scorer for Meeker as the girls only added three more points and the Eagles completed 12 for a deadlock, 33-33. In the fourth quarter Paonia’s physical play slowed the Lady Cowboys. Meeker ended the rough game with a loss, 46-57. Forty fouls were called during the game, and the game was stopped twice due to player injuries. “We played as hard as any game this year,” Chintala stated. “Paonia is very physical and fast. We struggled a little with the physical part of the game but will be ready for the next go round.”
“After the game the girls were disappointed a little, but the biggest thing I saw was the hunger in their eyes to recoil from this minor road bump.” The positive side of the entire weekend was the offset of rebounds for the teams. Meeker tore down 35 more rebounds than their opposition. The Lady Cowboys ended the weekend with 90, while the other two teams combined had only 55.
Next Friday, Jan. 20, the Lady Cowboys host Vail Mountain and travel to Rangely Saturday to play the Panthers.