MEEKER I The Meeker High School boys’ basketball team continues to get the job done as they won two more games over the weekend, defeating Little Snake River on Thursday night and Plateau Valley on Saturday.
The team traveled to Baggs, Wyo., Thursday knowing the Little Snake River High School Rattlers were going to be a competitive, up-tempo team.
The first quarter was just that, with both teams playing well offensively. The end of the first period was knotted at 17-17.
Meeker shot the ball extremely well and outscored Snake River 23-14 in the second quarter to take a 40-31 lead at the half.
The Meeker Cowboys never looked back from there and finished the game winning by a 16-point margin, at 64-48.
Coach Klark Kindler said, “We defended well and shot the ball well.”
The team was led in scoring by Eli Newman with 21 points, and he was followed by Kash Atwood with 13, Logan Hughes and Zack Dinwiddie each had 10, Jerrick added five, Doak Mantle had four and Trapper Merrifield had one point to round out the scoring.
The team played tenacious defense led by Logan Hughes, who seemed to be everywhere, keeping the team intensity up the entire game.
Meeker traveled to Collbran on Saturday to play Plateau Valley, and the team showed great composure, holding off offensive runs by their opponent.
Kindler said, “We got off to a great start and we got too complacent and kept them in the game. But to our credit, we picked things back up and finished them off. That is the mark of a team that is maturing.”
The team is certainly playing great ball and winning important games as they go along.
Their win Saturday was a total team effort as six guys scored, four in double figures. Logan Hughes led the way with 17 points, and he was followed by Eli Newman with 12, Kash Atwood with 11 and Zack Dinwiddie added 10 more. Doak Mantle had nine points and Gavin Garr added a bucket.
The defensive intensity of the Cowboys is setting them apart from other teams, and combined with added confidence with every win, this weekend promises to be exciting.
Meeker played Rangely on Tuesday night at home, but the results were not available by press time.
Meeker will host Paonia on Friday night and have a rematch against Cedaredge on Saturday at home.
