The 87th Annual Cowbell Tourney

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

The 2024 87th Annual Cowbell Tourney hit the court Tuesday afternoon December 10, in Sim Brown Gym in Springer to begin the five day adventure that is high school basketball in Northeasten New Mexico.

The ladies took to the court first Tuesday with Roy/Mosquero Lady Blue hosting the Cimarron JV girls. Kudos to the Cimarron JV for stepping up to fill a spot as Wagon Mound only has a boys team this year. While the JV Lady Rams gave it their all they fell short to the stronger more experienced Lady Blue 80-5.

In game two the Maxwell Bears hosted the Wagon Mound Trojans. While the Trojans never gave up they simply couldn’t hold down the Bears as they three pointed their way to a 96-33 victory with at least 15 3-pointers in the game.

Game three paired the Cimarron Lady Rams against the Clayton Yellowjackettes which saw the Lady Rams take the lead and hold on to it through out the game. At the buzzer Cimarron won the game by 12 39-27.

Game 4 of the evening paired the Clayton Yellowjackets against the Raton Tigers. This game was a show of turnovers and missed opportunities as both teams regularly threw that ball away and missed rebounds and shots under the basket. At one point in the second half of the game the score was tied but Raton could never quite get the right combination to pull ahead and then they lost sight as Clayton pulled away. It was a 72-57 win for Clayton at the buzzer.

Day 2 First Round

Day two of the first round of cowbell action saw brought sports fans a nail bitter barn burner of a game between Cimarron and Des Moines. But first we start with game five between the Raton Lady Tigers and the Springer Lady Red Devils. Springer took the early lead with the help of five of six free throws. Springer scored 19 points in the second quarter to pull out and move on for the win 66-25.

Game six of the tourney saw Roy/Mosquero take on Springer who was short a couple of players from an incident in Clayton on Saturday. The short bench however didn’t seem to have a lot of effect on Springer as they battled the Blue. The height advantage of the Blue was hard for Springer to deal with and the Blue used to their advantage out scoring Springer in the first half of play with double digit scoring. At the final buzzer it was a Roy/Mosquero win 66-45.

Des Moines took to the floor against the Lady Bears from Maxwell in game seven of the tourney where double digit quarters for Des Moines and strong defense over the Lady Bears led to 58-24 win for the Lady Demons.

Game eight of the tourney started out like a runaway game as Des Moines took a 16-4 lead over the Cimarron Rams to finish off the first quarter. It was turnaround time in the second quarter as Cimarron posted 19 points to Des Moines’ seven to send the boys into the halftime locker room tied at 23. After the break Cimarron took the lead and outscoring Des Moines 14-7 setting up the run for the finish where the lead changed and tied.

It finally came down to free throws with Des Moines down by two 45-43 with 15 seconds on the clock. Cimarron’s Uriah Martinez drops in one of two free throws for a three point lead. A blocking foul sends Kahler Osborn to the free throw line for two. Osborn makes one of two and Des Moines gets the rebound on the second shot with 4.7 seconds left. Cimarron fouls and sends Demon Destry Sumpter to the free throw line down by two and he sinks one. The ball goes out of bounds on the second shot off the rim and Des Moines has less than a second to get it in and score. The inbound pass is to Aaron Long who puts up the long 3-pointer and misses at the buzzer for the one point win for Cimarron 46-45.

Day 3 Consolation Bracket

Game nine began day three of the 87th Annual Cowbell and the last day in Springer before moving to Raton on Friday. The Clayton Yellowjackettes took on the Cimarron JV who was held to only 10 points in the game with the Jackettes topping out at 55.

The boys took the court next with Wagon Mound battling Raton for the chance to play for fifth place on Saturday. Raton took the lead with a 23-11 first quarter. The Trojans, however wouldn’t give up and kept up the battle to the end even with players in foul trouble. Raton ended the game on top with a 68-42 win.

The Lady Tigers hosted the Maxwell Lady Bears where the score stayed close through out the game. It was a one point difference at half time and by the time the buzzer sounded at the end of the game fouls had played a big role as Maxwell fouled out two players and Raton had several in foul trouble. Again free throws played a role in the final score with Raton making 24 of 38 attempts and Maxwell making 22 of 39 attempts. Had either team made more or less of those shots the final score of Raton 61-52 could have gone the other way.

The final game of the night between Springer and Des Moines was not the nail bitter that the previous night’s game was but it was still an exciting matchup with Des Moines taking the lead but Springer battled on and got to within striking distance several times. However when the final buzzer sounded Des Moines had garnered an 11 point lead and a 59-48 win for their efforts.

Day 4 Championship Bracket

Day four of the 87th Annual Cowbell begins the championship side of the bracket and which once again saw some closer games with another one point game to Move Maxwell into the championship game.

Roy/Mosquero stamped their ticket to the championship game with a 58-21 win over the Cimarron Lady Rams. The Lady Blue started out strong holding the Lady Rams to single digit scoring throughout the game while the Lady Blue showed double digit scores except for a nine point showing in the fourth quarter after Sylvie Baca was injured.

The barn burner game of the evening was the Maxwell Clayton game that had Maxwell up by as much as 21 points early in the game as Clayton could only muster 18 points in the first half. Third quarter action saw Clayton pickup the pace and start to battle back. As the game moved ever closer to the final buzzer Maxwell went cold and a strong defense by Clayton brought the game down to the wire. Rowen Floyd was at the free throw line with the chance to make it a two point game but misses his first, makes his second but Alex Black steps into the free throw area and is called for a lane violation nullifying the shot. With 4.3 seconds left on the Clayton gets the ball and heads down court. Rowen Floyd fouls with .1 seconds on the clock, Maxwell only had four fouls so Clayton did not go to the line and had to inbound the ball. It was a high inbound pass and Clayton hoped for a tip in shot but came up short for the one point loss to Maxwell 51-50.

The ladies once again on the court as Des Moines and Springer battled it out with Springer taking the early lead. The Lady Demons came close in the third to but were unable to go ahead of the Lady Red Devils. This game saw the Lady Demons go to the free throw line 13 times making only six of those shots which could have given them the lead as they ended the quarter down by only four. At the final buzzer it was a 10 point spread to give Springer the win 49-39.

In the final game of the evening the Roy/Mosquero Blue battled it out with Ciamrron where the score never got more than 12 points apart. However it could have been very different had the Blue made more of their outside shots as they only scored two points in the first quarter and eight in the second. The Blue woke up in the third and outscored Cimarron 16-11. The Blue got into foul trouble in the fourth loosing two key players, Rhett Smith and Ike Smith. This helped Cimarron bringing less experience players off the bench for Roy/Mosquero. At the final buzzer it was 55-46 win for Cimarron setting up a Maxwell Cimarron Championship game.

Day 5 Consolation Championships and Cowbell Championships

Day five of the 202 Cowbell Tourney started bright and early for a Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. with Game 17 between the Maxwell Lady Bears and the Cimarron JV Lady Rams. The Lady Rams held their own in the first quarter but a stronger Maxwell defense held them to only four points in the second quarter. At the final buzzer the Lady Bears had dominated and took the win 55-24.

Game 18 between Wagon Mound and Springer was a battle in the first quarter with Springer outscoring Wagon Mound by only five points. The Trojan downfall was in the second quarter when Springer did a 24-4 run for a 52-23 lead at halftime. Don’t count the Trojans out though as the fourth quarter came around the Trojans found a groove and out scored Springer 18-14 but too little too late as Springer went on to win the game 77-49.

In Game 19 brought Clayton and Raton girls to the court where Clayton did a 16-8 first quarter then it was a defensive game in quarter two as Clayton could only muster four points and Raton got the goose egg. The Third Quarter saw Courtney Romenski score 12 of the 20 point while Raton could only muster three going one of six at the free throw line. By the final buzzer Clayton had marked the win column with a 47-19 win.

Game 20 Was a close game from the opening tip off. Raton had a good first quarter holding Des Moines to six while scoring 15. IN the second quarter it was the reverse with Des Moines doing the double digit 12 and Raton seven for a halftime score of 22-18. Again free throws became an important part of the game as Raton did 12 of 23 while Des Moines did far better with 22 of 26 attempts. The final score at the buzzer was Raton 49 Des Moines 47. It was another nail bitter at the end of the game.

Game 21 fielded the Cimarron Lady Rams against the Des Moines Lady Demons that started out tight and stayed close for most of the game as with both teams scoring close to the same each of the quarters. At halftime Des Moines led 24-17. The Lady Demons were also helped by the fouls with Maggie Weir fouling out and three other Lady Rams in foul trouble. The Lady Demons did five of 12 free throws in the second quarter while Cimarron did two of four. The final buzzer came with 42 to 36 Des Moines win.

Game 22 was a nail bitter most of the game with the score being tied about seven times in the game five times just in first quarter alone and they finished it off at 19 each. It was the second quarter where Roy/Mosquero managed to pull the damper closed on the rim for Clayton holding them scoreless for over two minutes. At halftime it was a 31-26 game with Roy/Mosquero on top. The second half of the game saw Clayton claw back and score 19-17 in the third and 18-14 in the fourth. With 20 seconds on the clock it was RM 62-61. RM’s Ayden Clavel Travelled turning the ball over with 15 seconds left and chance for Clayton to tie or take the win. Clayton takes the ball down and Chris Herrera puts Clayton on top 63-62. RM brings the ball down and it goes out of bounds with .7 seconds The inbound shot attempt fails RM and leaves Clayton on top for the last second win.

Game 23, the girl’s championship game saw the Lady Blue take the lead and simply dominate the game until the fourth quarter when Springer out scored the Lady Blue 23-16. The only player to foul out in the fourth was Abby Eppler for Springer who played a good aggressive game scoring 11 with five of six free throws. Lady Blue Natalie Smith did seven of eight free throws and scored 18 points.

The boy’s championship game saw Maxwell take a 11 point lead in the first quarter while Cimarron went flat for the first scoring only nine points. But once they got warmed up they kept the second quarter score for score and ended the half with a 39-28 score. After halftime Cimarron lit up the boards with a 20-13 third quarter and only down by four. The game got interesting as JJ Apodaca fouled out in the third quarter followed by Alex Black and then later in the game Chris Hoy, all three key players in the Maxwell game plan. Near the end of the fourth quarter it was a one point game with Maxwell up by one 65-64. 36 seconds on the clock, Cimarron inbounds and misses the shot but goes to the free throw line and misses both shots off the rim. Rowen Floyd gets the rebound and heads to the other end of the court and runs circles until he is fouled with 15 seconds left. Floyd sinks both free throws and makes it a three point lead. Rowen Floyd makes the steal and is fouled and goes to the line for two. He sinks the first and missed the second Carlos Coca gets the rebound and slings it down court to be caught by Maxwell’s Tristen Davis to end the game 68-64. Floyd did four of five free throws in the fourth quarter to help Maxwell with the win.

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