2019 Cowbell Tourney

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

The 2019 Cowbell Tourney took off to a wide point spread evening Tuesday December 10, in Springer Sim Brown Gym as all four games that evening ended with over 20 point spreads.

Wagon Mound returned to the tourney this year with both a boys and girls team that felt the pounding of the Cimarron Lady Rams falling as they held the Lady Trojans to only six points on the evening. A still potent Maxwell Bears team took on the Trojans and ended the night with an 87-18 pounding. Raton took on Questa in both the boys and girls games with the Lady Wildcats sending Raton’s Lady tigers into the consolation bracket with a 47-26 win the smallest point spread of the evening while the Raton boys continued their strong offensive play after winning the TSJC Tourney the week before. They toppled the Questa Wildcats with a 72-37 win to move into Friday night’s action against Maxwell.

Wednesday night saw some much closer ball games as the Lady Bears from Maxwell came from behind to defeat the Lady Demons who also returned to the tourney this year by a three point win 37-34 after trailing most of the ball game. The Lady Blue from Roy bested the Lady Red Devils by 16, 39-23, but only after a tough first half of play. The first boys game of the night brought Des Moines together with Cimarron and it too was a close back and forth game until the fourth quarter when Des Moines defense squeezed the Rams and put up six quick points to pull out an 11 point win 56-45. The final game of the night saw the Springer Red Devils take on the Roy/Mosquero Blue who simply couldn’t keep up with the Red Devils as they outscored the Blue Throughout the game. Jose Urquijo dropped six 3-pointers in the third quarter to give Springer 32 points in the quarter to open up the point spread for a 74-38 win.

Thursday night was a night of mixed play on the consolation side of the bracket as the Lady Demons bested Springer by 19 with a 63-44 win. Raton Lady Tigers dominated the fledgling Lady Trojans with a 63-19 win. The Cimarron Rams and the Roy/Mosquero Blue kept things close going into half time but Cimarron adjusted and opened up the point spread finishing the game with a 13 point win 58-45. The Trojans improved as they took on the Wildcats and and finished the game down by only 26 points with a Questa win 61-35.

Friday night’s Cowbell action moved to Raton and once again saw four close ball games starting with Roy/Mosquero meeting up with Maxwell and the Lady Blue ending the game with the win despite having to play the remainder of the third quarter and all of the fourth quarter with only four players on the floor. The Lady Rams of Cimarron took on the Lady Wildcats from over the hill to pull out a 45-32 win. In the boys bracket it was a fast paced and physical game as rivals Springer Red Devils and the Des Moines Demons took to the floor. It was a close game until Springer managed to light the fire and pull out create a 40-24 halftime lead. Springer ended the game with a 69-43 win. The barn burner of a game was the final game of the night as Raton met Maxwell on the court, a battle of the big men as both teams have three players each over six foot. Raton took the early lead but never did get a big margin on the scoreboard. As the game drew to a close Maxwell was within four points with only seconds on the clock a twist of the ball allowed Raton to basket four points and make it a 58-52 win to end the Maxwell rein of the Cowbell. Springer last won the Cowbell in 2015 and Maxwell retained the bell the next three years 2016-2018.

Its was a long day Saturday at Tiger Gym as the 2019 Cowbell moved into its final day of play at 9:00 a.m. with consolation bracket play. A young and inexperienced Wagon Mound Lady Trojans took on the Springer Lady Red Devils to begin the day and Springer took the win. The Wagon Mound Trojans then followed it up against the Roy/Mosquero Blue Boys and they too an inexperienced team fell to the more experienced Blue. The consolation bracket finished off with a close game between the Des Moines Lady Demons and the Raton Lady Tigers in a close game that went back and forth before the Lady Demons finally caught a break and won the game by three. The Cimarron Rams took on the Questa Wildcats and tied the ribbon on the cats with a 65-25 win.

Moving into the winners side of the bracket the Lady Bears struggled against the Questa Lady Wildcats with the loss of Alexi Hoy who twisted her ankle the night before. The Lady Wildcats press was broken by the quick play of Audry Apodaca, D’Lancy Petrini and Kiara Hoy but they were unable to make the shots needed to hold off the Lady Wildcats on their way to a 71-21 third place win. The Maxwell Bears took on a tough Des Moines Demons and that game stayed close and switched leads along the way before Maxwell managed to catch a break and pull away in the fourth quarter for a 51-43 win to take the third place trophy.

The 2019 Cowbell championship games kept the crowd energized and cheering their team on with both games close till the end. The Lady Rams had one advantage going into he game as Roy/Mosquero only had five players in the game. To foul one out would leave the Lady Blue with only four players which did happen with just over a minute to play on the fourth quarter. However the Lady Blue played a tight game and kept the score close until the end when Cimarron pulled out the win and took the 1st place trophy home.

The boys championship game was a rematch of the game at the TSJC Tourney in Trinidad the week before when Raton won that game 58-47 over Springer. Springer was out for revenge and they wanted the cowbell that Maxwell had kept for the last three years. It was a close game with lead changes throughout and with a tie game early in the fourth quarter it would come down to who made the shots. Springer got the spark and started hitting sinking the ball in the bucket while Raton couldn’t make the ball fall no matter how hard they tried which eventually allowed Springer to pull away for the 68-52 win and the cowbell.

Photos from several of the games and all the trophy winners are below.

For other Cowbell Photos see    https://www.facebook.com/matthewrmayfieldphotography/