Cougars downed in regional by tough Melbourne squad

Rector guard Zach Burleson pushes the ball during a Cougar break. [Click to enlarge]

fourth-seed coming out of the District 2A-3 Tournament would be tough.

That was because it was likely it would lead to a regional matchup

with the Melbourne Bearkatz, one of the top Class 2A teams in the state.

That was the case for the Cougars, as they did indeed finish fourth

in the district and then met and fell to Melbourne, 64-41, in the

quarterfinals of the Class 2A-North Regional Tournament on Wednesday

at Midland.

Despite the setback, it was a great step forward for the Cougars as

they qualified for the regional tournament for the first time in 10

years, coming out of the always-tough 2A-3 Conference.

The Cougars matched the much-larger Bearkatz step-for-step in the

first quarter behind the nine-point performance of sophomore Brandon

Stevens. His first trey of the game pushed the Cougars to a 7-4 lead.

In a highly-competitive first period, the Bearkatz finally emerged

with a 17-15 edge and the situation was looking good for Rector.

But that all changed in the second period as the athleticism of

Melbourne took over behind the one-two combo of 6-5 Spencer Caraway

and 6-3 Dalton Grigg. They combined for 18 points in the quarter as

the Bearkatz rolled to a 42-21 halftime lead.

The Cougars trailed only 21-19 following a basket by Tyler Kirklin,

but Melbourne rolled off 10 straight points to take a 31-19 lead.

Kirklin again countered for Rector, but the winners had an 11-0 run

to close out the period and put the game out of reach. The Bearkatz

blitz was punctuated when Grigg banked-in a long three-pointer as the

buzzer sounded.

Behind the continued scoring of Kirklin, the Cougars closed the

margin to 16 early in the third period. But Caraway took over from

there, netting 13 points in the frame to push his team to a 59-31 advantage.

Caraway paced all scorers with 34 points, followed by Grigg with 20.

Kirklin led Rector with 16 points, followed by Stevens with 13. Also

scoring for the Cougars were Clinton Haley 6, Kirk Horton 2, Dustin

Smith 2 and Ben Petty 2.

Rector finished 9-14 from the free throw line while the Bearkatz were

5-9. The Cougars had only two three-pointers in the game while the

Bearkatz netted three.

With the win, Melbourne qualified for the Class 2A state tournament

next week at Carlisle.

"I thought we played really well in the first quarter," Rector coach

Matt Mills said. "We shot the ball well in the first quarter, but

then didn't shoot well at all the rest of the game.

"We just didn't match up well at all with their two big guys," the coach added.

Mills was pleased with the way Stevens played with confidence in the

first quarter. "He played like he belonged out there and it was a

glimpse of what he can be in the future if he keeps working."

"I said at the first of the year that, if we could qualify for the

regional tournament, I would be pleased. And we did that. At one

point we were 1-7 but we played as well as we could down the stretch

and ended up having a good year."

The Cougars finished 13-14 and Mills has strong hopes for the program

in the future. It was the final game for three Rector seniors --

Clinton Haley, Zach Burleson and Dustin Smith. The Cougars will have

several ninth graders moving up from a junior high team that was

competitive all year long.