For one half in their game against the Cottonwood Middle School Lobos, the Camp Verde Middle School Cowboys boys basketball team had everything working in their favor. The defense was tight, the passes were crisp and accurate, and the shots were finding their mark time and time again.
But all that changed in the second half as the Cowboys missed several easy layups and squandered their six-point 25-19 halftime lead and ultimately lost to the visiting Lobos 43-37.
“We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket,” said Cowboys head coach Donnie Shanks. “I told the boys ‘you didn’t get outplayed in the second half as much as you just didn’t get the ball in the hoop.’
“If we had made three of those easy layups that we missed, it would have been a tie game, and if we’d had one more we would have won the game.”
In the first half, guards Herbie and Anthony Trujillo, Jordan Huey and Kaynen Loring did a great job of moving the ball upcourt against the Lobos full-court pressure, and post Ryan Loza was grabbing nearly every rebound.
