The Abilene High School basketball teams were swept Friday night by Thomas More Prep Hays in Abilene.  The Lady Monarchs continued their domination of the Cowgirls with a 49-34 victory.  It was their 5th win in their last 6 games against Abilene.  The TMP boys defeated Abilene for the first time since 2009 in their 66-60 victory.

The Lady Monarchs were in control from start to finish in their victory.  They lead by as many as 22 points in the third quarter and went on to the 5 point win.  The loss snapped Abilene’s two game winning streak and dropped the Cowgirls record to 5-7 on the season.  TMP snapped a three game losing streak with their victory and they improved their record to 5-8.  Abilene was led by Beth Holmes, who finished with a game high 12 points.

The Cowboys got off to a good start against the Monarchs and led 13-12 at the end of the first quarter.  Abilene had some bad luck though in the first quarter, Travis Beetch picked up his second foul at the 4 minute mark and with just 22 seconds left in the quarter, Kaleb Becker went down with an injury.  Becker would later return but TMP was able to take advantage of the Cowboy’s top scorer’s being out of the game.  The Monarchs also capitalized on Abilene turnovers.  The Cowboys unofficially turned over the ball 14 times in the first half.  TMP built a 36-24 lead at halftime.

The Monarchs stretched their lead to as many as 18 at the 5:45 mark of the third quarter.  Abilene closed the quarter on a 16-3 run and got it down to 5 points.  The deficit would be too much to overcome as the Cowboys wouldn’t get any closer the rest of the night.

Abilene got a game-high 18 points from Beetch, 13 from Avery Bryson and Becker finished with 9 points.  The Cowboys dropped to 7-5 with the loss.  The Monarchs have now won 11 straight games and are 11-1 on the season.