Cowboys Have A Tumultuous Week

The North Gem Cowboys boys basketball team had a busy week last week where they played three games on three different days.  In those three games the Cowboys faced two very good shooting teams in Richfield and ShoBan and were heavily favored in one game against Clark County.

The week started off rough for the Cowboys when they hosted the Chiefs from ShoBan on Tuesday night.  Right out of the gates the Chiefs jumped all over the Cowboys as they began raining down three point shots.  Meanwhile the Cowboys struggled to get shots to fall at all from anywhere.  North Gem’s usual leading scorer Craig Yost could not buy a basket in the first period of play and the Cowboys found themselves in an early hole.  The second quarter was not much better for the Cowboys as the Chiefs surpassed their first quarter scoring while North Gem was only able to add a handful of points.  At the half North Gem was already down big enough that a comeback was not probable.  It was one of those games where even though you know you likely will not win, you try to learn some things about your team.  Unfortunately the Cowboys would not get much out of this game as far as on the court goes.  In the second half it was more of the same and the Chiefs ran away with the game.  As will sometimes happen in blowout games like this things get a little chippy and teenage boys get talking.  Sufficeth to say things could have been better but they also could have been a lot worse.  In the end cooler heads prevailed and the teams went their separate ways with North Gem moving on to their next opponent.

That next opponent was the Tigers from Richfield.  This game started off a little different than the previous one.  The Cowboys were effective on offense and stayed even with the Tigers for much of the first quarter.  Then in the later part of the quarter Richfields full court press along with some effective three point shooting started to put some separation between the teams.  By the end of the quarter despite a respectable fifteen points put up by the Cowboys they were down by eight points.  The second quarter of play was sloppy by both teams with several errant passes that resulted in turnovers.  Once again the mistakes favored the Tigers and the lead grew to double digits.  In the second half the Cowboys did play some solid basketball but they just could not keep pace with the sharp shooters from Richfield.  The Tigers would hit thirteen three point shots in the game and came away with the victory.

William Wakley sets up for a jump shot. Wakley had a huge game against the Bobcats.

 Following two devastating losses the Cowboys were ready for some redemption when they hosted the Clark County Bobcats on Friday night.  This time the Cowboys would finally get the upper hand early on in the game.  Even though they did not put a ton of distance between them and the Bobcats they did seem to control the game in the first quarter and finished with a five point lead.  The second quarter was a near mirror image of the first with the Cowboys out scoring the Bobcats and took a double digit lead into the halftime break.  In the third quarter the Bobcats did their best to mount a comeback with a trio of three point shots but North Gem’s William Wakely exploded for twelve points by himself to hold the Cowboy lead.  The Bobcats continued to try to claw their way back into the game in the fourth quarter.  Clark County scored eighteen points in the quarter twelve of which came from beyond the arc.  It was the first quarter of the game where the Bobcats were able to outscore the Cowboys but the lead was too big to overcome.  The Cowboys finally got back into the win column with the big win over the Bobcats.

The Cowboys will have just one game this week before taking a break for the holidays.  North Gem will travel to American Heritage on Thursday to take on the Patriots.

Cowboys 5 9 7 9 30

Chiefs 20 26 19 7 72

W. Wakley 5, J. Perry 7, P. Hill 6, H. Frandsen 2, C. Yost 10

Cowboys 15 3 10 12 40

Tigers 23 14 24 10 71

W. Wakley 5, J. Perry 9, P. Hill 1, H. Frandsen 2, C. Yost 14, B. Egley 2, H. Barnes 4, C. Hatch 3

Cowboys 10 11 14 15 50

Bobcats 5 5 10 18 38

C. Johnson 2, W. Wakley 21, J. Perry 7, P. Hill 2, C. Yost 18