The Cowboys Last Ride Of The Season

The North Gem Cowboys basketball season started with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.  The Cowboys began the season with just five players on the roster.  In just their third game of the season North Gem was forced to finish the game with just four players on the court due to one player fouling out.  The Cowboys won that game over Taylors Crossing.  That is when things took a slight detour.  The team had one of their players face some disciplinary action and was dismissed from the team.  The Cowboys faced the possibility of their season coming to an unceremonious end due to lack of players.  

The thing about Cowboys is they are tough enough to do most jobs on their own but in times of trouble they can always rely on another Cowboy to step up and ride into the challenges that face them.  That is exactly what took place in North Gem when the season was on the line the Cowboys were able to recruit four new players and doubled their numbers.  The Cowboys now had a bench and they forged on through the season.  

Unfortunately as they worked their way through the year the Cowboys racked up more losses than wins and finished the season with a record of 6-18.  In the Rocky Mountain Conference you need to finish in the top five to guarantee a spot in the district tournament.  The remaining six teams match up based on rankings and play three play-in games.  North Gems ended the season ranked tenth and would have to face number seven ranked Leadore in their play-in game.  The Cowboys and Mustangs had only met up once in the regular season.  That game was way back in early December at Leadore.  In that game the Mustangs ran wild over the Cowboys winning by twenty-seven points.  In last week's play-in game once again at Leadore the Cowboys would need to greatly improve on their performance from the teams first meeting if they wanted their season to continue.

As the game got underway neither team was able to get much of an advantage.  In the first four minutes of the game the score remained close within one score.  The Mustangs earned a little breathing room by the end of the first claiming a five point lead.  In the second period the Mustangs got on a roll from beyond the arc.  Leadore put up three three point shots and extended their lead.  At the halftime break the Cowboys now trailed by ten.  They needed some quick points to get back into the game.  North Gem’s Craig Yost answered the call and put up twelve points by himself in the third quarter.  The Cowboys managed to cut the lead to just five points again but in the closing seconds of the quarter Leadore hit another three and pushed the lead out to eight.  Yost was the only Cowboy to score in the third which did not help the cause.  The game got bogged down midway through the fourth quarter when several questionable calls were made by the officials.  Despite the Cowboys giving up a two shot intentional foul, a technical foul and losing one of their starters due to fouling out North Gem still had a shot at winning the game.  Now just trailing by three with just over a minute left the Cowboys called a timeout to discuss strategy.  Sadly out of the timeout the Cowboys immediately committed a foul giving the Mustangs an and one.  That was followed by a couple more defensive breakdowns and some missed foul shots.  In the end the Cowboys were not able to overcome all they were up against.

North Gem says goodbye to a pair of their top athletes in Rusty Hatch and Ryver Hayden who will graduate this year.  However if they can retain that Cowboy tough mentality and bring everyone else back they could have a shot at building on the positives from this season and make a fresh start next year.

Cowboys 12 11 12 11 46

Mustangs 17 16 10 13 56

P.Hill 6, R.Hatch 4, C.Yost 25, R.Hayden 9, W.Wakley 2