MHS junior Ryan Sullivan (3) goes after a basket. | BREALYN GARCIA/COURTESY PHOTOS
After a big home win Tuesday for the Meeker Cowboys in the first round of district basketball, the team traveled to Grand Junction Central Friday and Saturday for the remainder of the tournament.
“It was a well ran tournament in a nice facility,” commented head coach Klark Kindler.
Four teams took to the court Friday, Meeker challenging Roaring Fork for the third time this year. Losing by more than 22 points in the first two games, the Cowboys were only down by four points at the half.
“We went six minutes without scoring in the third quarter and just were unable to recover,” commented Kindler. “We cannot do that if we want to win the tough games.”
It was the closest game of the year so far for these two teams, final score 50-59.
Scoring was led by Johnathan Fitzgibbons who had 17, Casey Brink with 12, Ryan Sullivan 11 and Jace Mobley 10.
With four people scoring double digits it makes us hard to guard, no one can be left alone,” said Kindler. “Teams who have one or two guys that are really good are easy to defend but with us all six of the guys in our rotation need to be guarded.”
The breadth of talent throughout the team showed in game two of the tournament when yet another Cowboy broke into the double digits for a single game, 16 points were scored by Ethan Quinn to lead Meeker to victory. Mobley scored 10 points, Fitzgibbons seven and both Sullivan and Jacob Simonsen had six each.
The Cowboys were 1-1 with the Grand Valley Cardinals for the previous matchups, but in the third game, the Cowboys won 45-40 to take third in the district tournament.
“I went to bed Saturday thinking we would be headed to Yuma,” commented Kindler, “Yuma had spent the last few weeks in the top eight and Leadville was bouncing around between 16 and 17. I got a text from Coach Cravens Sunday morning and he let me know we were headed to Leadville.”
When Lake County broke into the top eight, Yuma was bumped to nine and lost their host position.
32 teams are left in the Class 3A state bracket. The top eight teams host a four team, single elimination tournament, and Lake County in Leadville is hosting Meeker, Yuma and Bayfield.
Beginning at 5:30 p.m. Meeker will play Lake County.
“I think we will be well matched against Lake County, they are scrappy and fast, so we will need to protect and control the ball well, but they are beatable,” said Kindler.
The second game will be played Saturday between the winners of the Friday games.
With Meeker in a new classification, it also brings some changes to the state tournament. They will need two wins at regionals to make it to the elite eight, this is just like last year. However, the rest of the games for the state tournament will be hosted at the University of Denver, Hamilton Gym.
By TIFFANY JEHOREK – Special to the Herald Times
