No. 15 Jace Mobley added 12 points in the game against the Hayden Tigers. | COURTESY PHOTO
MEEKER I In the final weekend of the regular season, Cowboy basketball went 1-1 on the weekend, ending with a 15-4 record overall and 9-2 in the league.
The Cowboys opened the weekend in Collbran at Plateau Valley, with a final score of 55-46, Meeker suffered its first loss in 14 games.
“Plateau Valley is playing really well right now and peaking at the right time”, began head coach Klark Kindler, “we caught them on a night when they were shooting really well.”
“We hit a segment Thursday night where we didn’t shoot very well and our defense wasn’t able to keep us on top,” said Kindler.
The Cowboys were down by 13 and then able to cut their lead to four but had to start fouling and gave up some points ending in the 55-46 score, led by Liam Deming with 24 and Zagar Brown with 11.
“It is hard to win 13-14 games in a row when you get to the postseason tournaments, no matter the sport. It takes something and is hard to do as you progress into the postseason,” commented Kindler.
Traveling again, the team headed to Hayden to take on the Tigers, a must win for an all out league championship.
“We played Hayden Friday and missed our first three to four shots and actually took us three minutes to score,” began Kindler. “We hit that first shot and then made seven or eight in a row and went on a big run. We were 15 up in the first quarter and then 30 by half.”
The score at the first quarter was 22-5, half 39-9, 53-9 at the third quarter with a final score of 60-24.
“We shot the ball much better and got stops and were able to get out on the break on Friday,” wrapped-up Kindler.
There were a lot of contributions from the bench, led by Deming with 13, Jace Mobley with 12 and both Ryan Sullivan and Zach Simonsen with eight each.
With the win against Hayden the Cowboys took the league outright, making seven league championships during Kindler’s career as head coach.
This Friday begins districts for the Cowboys as they were able to advance automatically past the Tuesday pigtails. They will play the winner of Vail Christian and Rangely at 4:30 pm in Debeque.
By TIFFANY JEHOREK – Special to the Herald Times
