BOYS BASKETBALL: Crowder outlasts Kiowa in back-and-forth battle
Nov. 9—It was a fight to the finish.
Kiowa faced Crowder in basketball action on Tuesday night, where the Demons used a fourth-quarter surge to take the 55-46 win.
Crowder put itself on the board first, using buckets form Royce Florenzano and James Meek to take an early lead with a 5-2 run. Kiowa's Jaxon Wills next got a rebound and put-back for two, but Meek added in a shot of his own in response.
Florenzano, Cooper Allison, and Meek combined for six points to push Crowder further out front, but scores from Kiowa's Cooper McClendon and Eli Foris made it a 13-8 Demons lead after the opening quarter.
In the second period, Myer Medders and Cason Church added back-to-back buckets, followed by a swish for Noah Foris to put the Cowboys into the lead. Crowder's Allison added in a bucket to try to put a stop to the run.
But the Cowboys kept their foot on the accelerator, and finished out the quarter on a 5-0 run to take a 19-15 lead at the half.
Both teams came out of the locker room trading buckets, with a triple from Noah Foris keeping Kiowa in front midway through the third. Crowder's Allison floated in a contested shot in the paint, and Traesten Craven completed an and-one opportunity to tie up the game at 25-25.
Craven was next fouled the next time down the floor, sinking both free throws to retake the lead for the Demons. Church responded with a swishing three from the right side for the Cowboys, but Allison sank one of his own on the other end to make it a 30-28 Crowder lead after three quarters.
On the other side, Meek drove the baseline and rolled the ball through the cylinder to extend the lead for the Demons, with Allison rattling in a triple the next time down to move the needle further and force a Kiowa timeout.
The Demons kept their foot on the accelerator on the other side, with the Cowboys following close behind. But another arcing triple from Allison ignited the Demons, followed by a Florenzano drive and layup to make it a nine-point lead for Crowder midway through the quarter.
Noah Foris drilled a three on the other side of a timeout, but Craven took it down the lane for a score in response. Wills next used a cleanup shot on the other side for the Cowboys, cutting the deficit down to seven.
Florenzano put up another successful shot under the bucket, but an intentional foul on the Demons put Wills to the line for Kiowa with just under two minutes remaining. He sank the second, and Noah Foris later added a corner three to cut the lead down to five with 51.2 seconds remaining.
The Cowboys would be forced to foul, putting Craven on the line. He sank both to extend the Demons' lead, and Austin Motley-Greed added in a pair of his own, and later capped by a bucket from Florenzano to help seal away the win.
Florenzano led the way for Crowder with 21 points, followed by Allison with 14 points, and Meek and Craven with nine points each.
Wills led Kiowa with 12 points, followed by Noah and Eli Foris with 10 points each, Church with six points, and McClendon and Medders with four points each.
Next up for Kiowa, the Cowboys will hit the highway to battle Stringtown Friday, while Crowder will next face off against Indianola on the road on Friday.
