The Gunnison High School girls basketball team moved to 2-3 on the season after going 1-2 in their three games last week. After losses to Buena Vista High School on Tuesday, Dec. 11, and North Fork High School on Friday, Dec. 12, the Cowboys finished the week with a win over Grand Valley High School on Saturday, Dec. 13.
The Cowboys lost Tuesday’s game against Buena Vista 38-33 in overtime. Coach Chad Terry emphasized that despite a good defensive showing from the girls, they lost the game at the free throw line, shooting 41 percent from the charity stripe.
“We played pretty decent defense,” said Terry. “The two reasons we dropped that game is we did not rebound well and we shot seven for 17 from the free throw line.”
Brooke Terry led the team in scoring with 19 points and Althea Stansbery added eight points for the Cowboys. Brooke and Stansberry each added five rebounds as well. No other player for the Cowboys scored more than two points.
Despite the lackluster offensive showing in the loss, the Cowboys were able to hold the Demons to under 40 points, even with the extra overtime period.
After the hard overtime loss the Cowboys then traveled to Hotchkiss for their matchup with North Fork High School. The Miners handed the Cowboys their worst loss of this young season, winning 56-31 on Friday.
The Miners jumped out to a 38-13 lead at halftime and had a 53-22 lead by the end of the third quarter. Terry emphasized that North Fork shot the ball really well and played much faster than Buena Vista did which the girls struggled with. In the second quarter specifically the Cowboys struggled to stop the Miners in transition, leading to them being outscored 21-6
Stansbery led the team with 11 points, Kaylee Vincent had six points in the match and Merci Williams added five of her own for the Cowboys.
The Cowboys bounced back in their final game of the week though, defeating Grand Valley High School 45-40 in Parachute on Saturday.
“I think they [the team] just enjoyed playing basketball with each other,” said Terry. “Saturday was a lot of fun to come back and bounce back and play a really solid game and pick up a win.”
It was a balanced scoring attack for the Cowboys on Saturday. Autumn Terry led the Cowboys in scoring with 16 points off the bench. Brooke added 10 of her own while Stansbery continued to be effective, scoring 10. Vincent also scored nine points for the Cowboys.
The game was not necessarily as close as the score indicated, Terry said. Grand Valley made the game closer late after a couple bad decisions made by the Cowboys in the final minutes led to points for the Cardinals.
All three of the games were played without senior Ashlyn Cowan who was hurt earlier this season. Cowan is the team’s starting center and one of the team’s leading scorers when she’s healthy. In Cowan’s absence, players like Stansberry, Vincent and Brooke are all stepping up to help lead the Cowboys. Terry is hoping to have Cowan back after winter break as the Cowboys open the new year with Cedaredge High School on Friday, Jan. 9.
The Cowboys still have two games against tough opponents coming up before the break. The first is a matchup against Centauri High School on Friday, Dec. 19, and the second is against Alamosa High School on Saturday, Dec. 20. Both Centauri and Alamosa are both top teams in the state and are going to be aggressive in their approaches.
Jack Sellner can be reached at jsellner@orourkemediagroup.com.
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