In a rare Thursday game, the Cowboy basketball team traveled to Belmond-Klemme and took a 64-40 win over the Broncos on their home floor. Mateo Martinez led the way with a 20-point night, followed by Jaxon Carpenter with an equally impressive 17 points (These are all the stats that were available at press time).
“It was good to come out of the break and get a much needed win,” stated assistant coach Jason Berning. “We started off strong in the first half and really took the game over in the second quarter with our defense and transition game. Mateo had another strong offensive game, and he’s been our most consistent scorer to this point. Jaxon broke out and had his best game of the season. He is at his best when he can get out and run so he really took advantage of that and was really aggressive in taking the ball to the rim.”
The very next night, the team kept it going in feasting on home cooking with a 63-54 win over Hampton-Dumont/CAL. Martinez put up another great night at 21 points, and was matched by Connor State’s 21 points in a great 1-2 offensive punch. Coady Olson contributed 13 points to the cause (These are all the stats that were available at press time).
“This was a great win in many ways,” said Berning. “One, we got our first conference win, and two, we had lost several games prior to Christmas in which we had control of things late. It was great to finish a hard-fought game. We again took control of the game with our defense, this time in the third quarter. The third thing we had was great contributions from our bench. We have good depth, and so it was fun to see so many guys contribute to the win. Connor had his best game to date. He played with tremendous toughness and took control of the paint.”
