Abilene Cowboys 64 Rock Creek 57 (Overtime)
Abilene – The first time the Cowboys played Rock Creek on December 7, Abilene registered their most lop-side win of the year 68-27. Saturday night in the 4A Sub-State Championship, the Cowboys would need overtime. Senior, Cooper Wildey buried a three-pointer to give Abilene a 52-50 advantage with 11 seconds to go. Rock Creek’s Zac Becker then tied the game at 52 with 3 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Cowboys outscored Rock Creek 12-5. Abilene was 7-10 at the foul-line in the extra session. Senior, Kaleb Becker was 3-4 at the line in overtime and finished with a game-high 19 points. He was the co-Nex-Tech Wireless Player of the Game with Cooper Wildey, who finished with 13. Junior, Tristin Cottone also totaled 13 points and Thomas McClendon scored 12 points for the Cowboys.
Abilene won their 4th straight game and improved to 16-6 on the season. The Cowboys return to State for back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2012 and 2013. Rock Creek finished the season 9-13. The loss ends a remarkable run for the Mustangs. They graduated all five of their starters from last season and eight of their top ten players from their rotation from a team that went 22-3 and finished in 3rd Place in Class 3A.
The Cowboys will play at the 4A State Tournament Thursday at the Tony’s Pizza Event Center in Salina. Seedings will be released on Sunday.
