Cowboys Win On Senior Night

The North Gem Cowboys basketball team celebrated their seniors last Friday night in their final home game of the regular season.  Each of the senior players as well as the senior cheerleaders were escorted onto the court with their parents.  The loyal Cowboy fans showed their appreciation to each of the athletes’ years of dedication to the school and their sport.  With the pomp and circumstance that comes with senior night all taken care of the game got underway.  

Wins have been hard to come by for the Cowboys this season but on senior night this group of seniors would not be denied a win in their final home game.  Their opponent for this game was the Pumas from Alturas Prep.  It was fitting that the Cowboys would finish the season with the Pumas since that is how their season began.  That’s right, their first game of the year was against Aluras Prep.  A game that the Cowboys won by eighteen points.  The Cowboys were thrilled with the prospect of earning another win over the Pumas on senior night and that is just what they were able to do.  After a bit of a slow start senior Craig Yost got things really rolling for the Cowboys as they opened up with a big first quarter lead.  Yost finished the opening period with ten of his team’s twenty points.  The Cowboys were then able to follow up that first quarter performance with a twenty-four point second quarter performance.  Six different Cowboys scored in that quarter and the Cowboys took a huge lead of over thirty points into the halftime break.  The scoring slowed dramatically in the third with both teams playing a little sloppy.  Nevertheless the Cowboys still held a commanding lead going into the final quarter of the game.  Having already hit the mercy rule the fourth quarter started with a running clock.  This meant that once again the scoring would be limited in this quarter.  The Cowboys were able to continue to pour it on as they easily cruised to victory on senior night.  Several of the seniors were able to contribute and have great games.  Once again it was Yost that led the way for the Cowboys as he put in twenty six points.  Fellow senior Parker Hill also had a good showing with eight points.  It will be difficult for the Cowboys to replace their senior players but they have a bunch of youth ready to prove their worth in the upcoming years. 

The Cowboys will now wait to see where they fall in the conference standings to determine where and when they will play next.  That game will likely be a play-in game that will be on the road at a yet to be determined location.

Cowboys 20 26 11 12 69

Pumas 6 7 6 4 23

C. Yost 26, J. Perry 16, P. Hill 8, C. Johnson 4, W. Wakley 8, H. Barnes 3, B. Egley 4