Cowboys make it closer, but fall to Hotchkiss

The Gunnison High School girls basketball team lost in Hotchkiss at North Fork 60-47 on Saturday, Jan. 24, moving their record to 4-9 on the season.

In December the Miners handed the Cowboys their worst loss at that point in the season, so despite the 13-point loss, head coach Chad Terry was proud of the way the girls battled on Saturday.

The girls came out ready to play, said Terry. They were tied with North Fork after the first quarter and kept it close until the Miners were able to go on a small run in the last two minutes of the first half. Heading into the third quarter the Cowboys were down nine points, but the Miners were able to pull away after continuing the run they ended the first half on in the first four minutes of the second half, said Terry. The Cowboys outscored the Miners 20-11 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough and they fell 60-47.

“We played pretty well,” said Terry after the game. “We just didn’t respond offensively. You know, we need to be able to score points to stop their runs and we would come down and miss shots and they would come down and hit shots. So that was kind of the difference in the game.”

Autumn Terry was the Cowboy’s leading scorer with 14 points. Ashlyn Cowan finished with 11 points, Brooke Terry had nine, Kaylee Vincent added seven, Caroline Sudderth finished with four points and Althea Stansberry rounded out the scoring with two points.

Terry said he was happy with the Cowboys balanced scoring attack, six out of the nine players who dressed for the game scored. Despite getting contributions by the majority of the team, the Cowboys still struggled to keep up with the offensive pace of the Miners which ultimately led to the loss, said Terry.

The Cowboys have a big week coming up with three games in five days. They start with a home game against their in-valley rivals Crested Butte (4-6) on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Then they host Grand Valley on Friday, Jan. 30, and Cedaredge on Saturday, Jan. 31, two teams the Cowboys have faced already this year.

“I think the girls are excited,” said Terry. “[They’re] a little bit worn down at the same time, so we’ll try to keep practice focused and maybe a little shorter this week. But we got to really get after it.”

Jack Sellner can be reached at jsellner@orourkemediagroup.com.