Cowboys Fall to Defending 4A Champ Hugoton

 

Hugoton 53 Abilene Cowboys 41

SALINA: The (3) Hugoton Eagles finished Thursday night’s game against (6) Abilene on 11-2 run on their way to a semifinal appearance Friday night vs Atchison at 8 pm.  Atchison defeated Rock Creek 68-54 in the opening round.  Abilene fell to 19-4 with the loss and lost to a 4A opponent for the first time this season.  Hugoton improved 21-2 and won their 13th game in a row.

Thursday night, Abilene fell behind by 9 points on the first basket of the second half.  The Cowboys then got a half-court buzzer beater by Stocton Timbrook at the end of the 3rd quarter that would spark a 10-3 run. Abilene got to withing 37-36 with 5:42 to play in the game on a follow shot by Timbrook. The Cowboys would get no closer than 3 points the rest of the night.

Hugoton got a huge 4th quarter from Jay Acosta, who scored 8 of his 12 points in the final quarter.  The Eagles were led in scoring by Dasean Lewis and Izeyah Harris who finished with a game-high 16 points each.

Abilene was led by Senior, Brax Fisher, who finished with 13 points.  The Cowboy bench of Weston Rock, Taygen Funston and Ian Crump outscored the Hugoton bench 14-0.  It was the final basketball game for Fisher, Timbrook, Keaton Hargrave and Zach Miller.  They made it to State three times in their four years and won two NCKL titles at Abilene High School.

(𝟯) 𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗻  15  26  34  53  (21-2)
(𝟲) 𝗔𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲    14  20  29  41  (19-4)

𝗔𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲: Brax Fisher 13, Stocton Timbrook 9, Ian Crump 6, Taygen Funston 4, Weston Rock 4, Zach Miller 3

𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗻: Dasean Lewis 16, Izeyah Harris 16, Jay Acosta 12, Emmett Gaskill 6, Isaac Martin 3