The Abilene Cowboys returned to action Friday night at TMP for the first time since January 18. Abilene avenged last year’s 6 point loss to the Monarchs with a 68-60 victory. In the first game of the night, the TMP Lady Monarchs had no trouble with the Cowgirls in a 68-21 victory.
In the boy’s game, Abilene fell behind by as many as 5 points in the opening quarter. Josh Stuber, hit a three-pointer at the end of the first quarter to tie the game at 14. Stuber scored a career-high 16 points in the victory. He had not played since January 12, in a loss to Wamego. His three-pointer, was part of a 13-2 run that helped Abilene take control of the game. Kaden Coup capped the run with his first three-pointer of the season with 5:00 to play in the half, to make the score 24-16. The Cowboys outscored the Monarchs 21-12 in the quarter and led by as many as 12 points. Abilene took a 35-26 lead into halftime.
The Cowboys led 45-37 and the end of the third quarter and put the game away in the fourth with free-throw shooting. Abilene connected on 23-29 free-throws in the victory and were 14-17 in the final quarter. Avery Bryson scored 9 of his 11 points in the fourth and was 9-10 at the stripe in the quarter.
The Cowboys improved to 6-2 with the win. Abilene also got double-figures from Kaleb Becker 13 points and Blaise McVann 10 points. TMP fell to 9-4 with the loss. Every loss this season for the Monarchs has been against ranked opponents. They have losses to Hays and two losses to Hoxie. The Monarchs were led by Lucas Lang, who finished with a game-high 20 points.
The girls matchup was never close. TMP led from start to finish and there was a running clock in the fourth quarter. The Lady Monarchs improved to 10-2 with the victory. Abilene fell to 2-9 with the loss. TMP was led by Jaci VonLintel, a Sophomore, who got her first start of the season. She finished with 28 points in the victory. The Cowgirls were led by Abi Lillard, who totaled 8 points.
Abilene will host Minneapolis and Marysville next week and will travel two more times in the regular season, unless games are added.
