MEEKER — In a match between two Cowboy teams, the Meeker Cowboys and Plateau Valley Cowboys, last Thursday, it was the visiting P.V. Cowboys who came away with a victory and hung the first loss of the year on the Meeker Cowboys unbeaten record 64-58.
However, Meeker was able to regain some confidence and momentum on Friday as they scored early and often against the struggling North Park Wildcats winning by a huge margin of 90-32.
A case of the holiday layoff, combined with poor shooting, and Plateau Valley’s stronger desire to win spelled doom for the Meeker cagers Thursday. Plateau jumped out to a quick lead before Meeker struggled back at the end of the first quarter down 14-15.
Meeker wasn’t able to do much better in the second quarter as Plateau was able to lengthen its lead on balanced team scoring, as six of their eight players scored on the home town defense. Halftime found Meeker down 32-26.
Meeker’s varsity came out even flatter in the third quarter before Coach Klark Kindler put his entire second squad into the game who played fairly even ball with the visitors.
This respite gave the starting five time to regroup. In the fourth quarter Meeker came alive and made a run at the visitors, but a 14 point deficit proved too much to overcome in the eight minute period. Plateau put the game away with free throws for the victory 64-58.
Friday night Meeker exacted a measure of revenge for the previous night. As poorly as the Cowboys shot the previous night, the ‘Pokes shot that well Friday, as they scored on every possession but one in the first quarter to open up an insurmountable 33-2 first quarter lead.
The second team had their chance for more playing time as they played the second quarter and outscored the visitors by one point to end the half up 47-15. The third quarter was a replay of the first as Meeker again went on a huge 30-1 run. The entire Meeker basketball team played in the game and 14 of the 15 players scored during the 90-32 rout.
Senior Brian Crowe and Junior Mitch Jacob led the scoring for the ‘Pokes for the weekend with 24 and 21 cumulative points respectively. Meeker shot 46 percent from the charity stripe in the two games. The Cowboys take their 7-1 record on the road Friday (7 p.m.) in Carbondale to face Roaring Fork and home against Vail Christian in Meeker on Saturday (4 p.m.).
Meeker 14 13 10 22 – 58
Plateau Valley 15 17 18 14 – 64
Jacob 3-1-2-4-11, Rowlett 3-1-3-5-12, Brown 3-0-0-2-6, Nieslanik 0-0-0-1-0, Gerloff 1-0-3-4-5, Boesch 0-0-1-2-1, Campbell 1-1-1-1-6, Crowe 2-2-4-3-13, Wix 2-0-2-0-4: Totals 30-15-13-25-58
Meeker 33 14 30 13 – 90
North Park 2 13 1 16 – 32
Jacob 5-0-0-0-10, Rowlett 3-0-0-0-6, Brown 1-1-0-0-5, Nieslanik 2-0-1-3-5, Gerloff 6-0-0-0-12, Steiner 2-0-1-2-5, Boesch 3-0-0-0-6, Campbell 2-3-0-0-13, Crowe 3-1-2-2-11, Matrisciano 1-1-0-0-5, Kilduff 1-0-1-4-3, Wix 1-0-0-0-2, Bullard 1-0-0-3-2, Morris 1-1-0-0-5: Totals 64-21-5-14-90
