MEEKER | “The game was fast and exciting to the last second,” Meeker girls’ head coach Jamie Rogers said of the Region 7 championship game, where the lady Cowboys, for a second week in a row, lost the team title by one-point, this time to the Clear Creek Golddiggers.
“I’m so proud of our girls,” coach Rogers said. “I have told them all season, they are a beautiful team. Everyone has done their job and taken care of each other.”
For a second year in a row, the lady Cowboy basketball team advanced to the 2A round of Sweet 16, this year, by beating the Lyons Lions 54-36 in the first round. After a loss in the championship game, Meeker ended the season with a 18-6 record.
The lady Cowboys trailed the Lions 9-10 at the end of the first quarter but took a 22-14 lead into the locker room at halftime. Meeker took control in the third quarter, scoring 16 points while holding the Lions to seven, then scoring 16 more in the fourth.
“Lyons was a strong post team and bigger than anyone we had seen before,” Rogers said. “The girls kept great rebounding position and didn’t give their posts a lot of down low shots. We moved the ball well on offense, finding the open shots and used a lot of defensive pressure on the guards to create turnovers.”
Sophomore Julia Dinwiddie scored 17 points, including nine free throws, to lead all scorers, while junior Tori Lasker scored 14 and pulled down 12 rebounds. Junior Megan Shelton added 10 points and nine rebounds, while classmates Gracie Bradfield scored 6, Kenzie Turner score four and senior Sierra Williams added three to the total.
Both teams came out shooting in the championship game, as the Cowboys took a 24-23 lead into the second period, only to be outscored by three. Meeker trailed 47-50 at the end of the third quarter and battled hard in the fourth, outscoring the Golddiggers 12-10, to come up one point short.
“Clear Creek was a really well balanced team and they were shooting exceptionally well from the outside, then got some second attempts on offensive rebounds,” coach Rogers said. “We had some big rebounds, big baskets and critical steals to make it exciting.”
Dinwiddie again led the girls with 21 points, including three from behind the three-point arch. Shelton hit two, three-pointers and finished with eight. Lasker scored 15 points, had nine rebounds and five steals, while Bradfield scored six, Turner four and Williams scored five in her final high school game.
Meeker will graduate Williams, Brittney Adams and Riley Pertile this year and return with several players with two years of regional tournament experience.
“Sierra, Brittney and Riley were great senior leaders this year, each offered something unique and wonderful to our team,” Rogers said.
