GHS drops three games, including close losses to Grand Valley, Cedaredge

The Gunnison High School boys basketball team dropped to 1-14 after going 0-3 in their games last week. 

“Yeah, it's a struggle, but we're going to keep fighting,” said head coach Christian Aguilar after last week’s games.

The boys started out the week with a home matchup with in-valley rivals Crested Butte on Tuesday, Jan. 27. They lost the game 58-34 and lost senior Landon Miller to two sprained ankles in the beginning of the second half.

Aguilar explained that the Cowboys were in the game for most of the first half, but once Miller injured his ankles to start the second half the whole team went cold. The whole gym went quiet and from then on we could not find any sort of rhythm on offense, said Aguilar. 

The Cowboys were led by Asher Woytek, who finished the game with 11 points. Jesus Chona had six, Jake Ebbott had five, Ryder Vincent had four and Jorge Perez, Max Peluso and Cooper Boardman all had two points. Miller had two points of his own before leaving the game with his injury.

The Cowboys hosted the Grand Valley Cardinals on Friday, Jan. 30, losing 47-41. The Cardinals are the only team that the Cowboys have beaten all year and it looked like they may be able to close out another victory, but the boys went cold for a stretch in the second half and ended up losing by six. 

“We can't have those lapses at all in any quarter,” said Aguilar. “We just have to continue to play hard to give effort. And, you know, shots may not be falling, but we have to find different ways to impact the game.”

Peluso led the Cowboys with 19 points in the loss. Ebbott added six of his own, Boardman had five, Perez had four, Jack Stone had three and Vincent and Woytek each had two to round out the scoring.

The Cowboys finished up their week with another home game, losing to the Cedaredge Bruins 49-45 on Saturday, Jan. 30. Despite playing a solid defensive game, Aguilar felt that the Cowboys were trying to force it too much on the offensive end, which was especially evident in the passes they were making. 

“You know, we had balls that were just bouncing off [and] over our foot, or we were just making passes through a whole bunch of hands,” said Aguilar.

The Cowboys had three players score in double figures in the game. Woytek led the boys with 13 points, Perez had 12 and Peluso had 10. Ebbott added eight points and Vincent had two points to round out the scoring.

“We're going to keep fighting,” said Aguilar. “Max [Peluso] came up big for us in those two games and he's just really been kind of our offensive juggernaut in the last two games.”

With just under a month left of the season the Cowboys will continue to fight. It’s a next man up mentality for the rest of the season, says Aguilar.

The Cowboys have two games coming up this week, the first on Friday, Feb. 6, at Meeker (10-5). The second is at Roaring Fork (12-2) on Saturday, Feb. 7. 

Miller has a chance to return this week, but will most certainly not be able to play the minutes that he has averaged per game this year in his first couple games back.