Cowboys win two of three, improve to 6-10

The Gunnison High School girls basketball team improved to 6-10 on the season after winning two out of their three games last week.

The Cowboys started the week with a 45-12 win over in-valley rivals Crested Butte on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at home. The Cowboys held the Titans to five points or under in every quarter of the game, highlighting their defensive intensity.

“That was honestly just a great defensive effort,” said head coach Chad Terry about the game. “We did okay offensively too, but really just kind of changed up some defensive stuff and ended up kind of locking them down.”

The Cowboys had a balanced scoring attack on Tuesday with Kaylee Vincent leading the way with 10 points. Ashlyn Cowan added eight of her own, Brooke Terry, Autumn Terry and Althea Stansbery each had six points, Caroline Sudderth had three and Merci Williams, Delaney Diamond and Reese Japuntich all had two points to round out the scoring. 

The Cowboys then hosted the Grand Valley Cardinals on Friday, Jan. 30, winning 34-20. The win marked the first time all season that the Cowboys have recorded back-to-back wins. 

The win was once again marked by impressive defense, said Terry. The Cowboys held the Cardinals scoreless in the third quarter while they built their lead to 22 points. The Cardinals outscored the Cowboys 13-5 in the fourth quarter due to some sloppiness on the offensive end, said Terry, but the Cowboys were able to hold on for the 14-point win. 

“But like I said, good win, important win, you know, if we're going to kind of stay in the hunt for the postseason,” said Terry after the game.

Cowan led the girls with nine points in the game. Brooke Terry had eight, Vincent had seven, Stansbery had six and Autumn Terry had four to round out the scoring for the Cowboys.

The girls ended the week with a 45-36 home loss to the Cedaredge Bruins on Saturday, Jan. 31. The story of the game was the girls playing tired and a little sick, said Terry. 

“[We] didn't play bad, [we] really didn't have our normal energy or pep,” said Terry. “We just gave up a lot of offensive rebounds to Cedaredge, and they put some shots in on second-chance opportunities, and we were just kind of always chasing, unfortunately.”

Brooke Terry led the girls with 12 points and Cowan also scored in double figures with 11. Stansbery had six, Autumn Terry had four, Vincent added two and Williams rounded out the scoring with one point. 

With a little under a month left in the season the Cowboys are still firmly in the hunt for a bid to regionals if they are able to string together some more wins. Terry believes that if the girls can get to 10 or 11 wins by the end of the season they have a chance depending on how the rankings shake up.

The Cowboys will start this final stretch with two games this week. The first is at Meeker (12-2) on Friday, Feb. 6. The second is at Roaring Fork (13-2) on Saturday, Feb. 7. Meeker and Roaring Fork are both top 15 3A teams in the state.

Terry gave the girls Monday, Feb. 2, off of practice in order to rest and recharge and he is optimistic the girls will come back reenergized for the week ahead. 

“I'm pretty excited about this week,” said Terry. “I'm just going to go compete and kind of battle it out and have fun with it.”