The Cowboys had their home opener tonight for the 2018-19 campaign. Southwest hosted city rival High Point Central. The Cowboys are 17-4 against the Bison since 2010. But for the first time since February 2012, Southwest headed into tonight’s contest trying to avenge a loss to HPC. Last season the Cowboys won the first match-up, but the Bison managed to stop the Cowboy’s 13 game win streak. Southwest wanted to avenge that loss also while staying perfect on this young season. The Cowboys played their first 3 games of the season on the road and came out victorious without any result being in doubt, while the Bison have come up short in both games of their early season.
Tonight was a great atmosphere wasn’t anywhere near as boistrous as in the past, but as the gym slowly filled up, so did the Cowboys. A slow back and forth game set the tone as both teams traded baskets as well as poor decision making. It was tied 7-7 at the 5:50 mark. A couple of empty possessions by both teams finally ended with a Southwest basket which gave the Cowboys the lead at 9-7 with 4:20 left in the frame. Another basket pushed it to 11-7, but the Bison responded like they did all period to make it 11-9. Central even tied the game at 11 apeice for a brief moment. A 4-point play by Keyshaun Langley gave the Cowboys the lead for good at 15-11, which was the spark to a run that closed the opening quarter at 20-11.
The second quarter was when the Cowboys were able to force their style and tempo as the pressure led to easy baskets and several highlight dunks. Southwest held the Bison scoreless for over a 2 minute stretch, but it was the Bison who scored at the buzzer following a missed Cowboy free-throw which trimmed the halftime deficit to 47-27.
The third quarter was more like the opening frame: slow and sloppy. Neither team really got into a ryhthym on offense, and both teams struggled to make good consistent decisions. The margin hovered near that 20 point range, and the Bison even got as close as 15, but the slovenly period ended with the Cowboys still up 62-44.
The final quarter was a little better as the Southwest bench really helped slam the door shut with some solid team defense. Forcing turnovers and contesting every shot, really frustrated the Bison as they frantically tried to fight back into it. In the end however, the Cowboy bench was too deep as Southwest cruised to the convincing victory at 82-54. High Point Central was led by Kuluel Mading with 17 points. Southwest played a solid team game with contributions from the whole roster. Keyshaun Langley led the way with 21 points. Also reaching double figures were; Joel Pettiford with 18, and Jay’Den Turner with 14 points.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
High Point Central 11 16 17 10 54
Southwest Guilford 20 27 15 20 82
High Point Central (0-3)
Jamel Marbuary 8
Jyree Ford 12
Dhieu Deing 13
Trent Westray 4
Kuluel Mading 17
Southwest Guilford (4-0)
Keyshaun Langley 21
Kobe Langley 6
Milli Huggins 3
Cameron Thompson 6
Jayden Turner 14
Christian Martin 2
Bryce Causey 8
Joel Pettiford 18
Aamaje Platt 2
Jeremy Mull 2
Submitted by Greg Vlazny