craigdailypress.com

Call it payback.

On Saturday, the Craig Middle School eighth-grade boys basketball team was able to avenge an earlier season loss to Meeker by topping the Cowboys, 42-25.

Kelly Campbell, who netted a game-high 16 points, said the team improved since its Oct. 24 game against Meeker.

“This time, we had our shots back, and we played our hearts out,” he said. “They beat us badly, and I was able to get points up on the board and get a little payback.”

Campbell scored 16 points, Taft Cleverly scored nine, Jorge Torres netted seven, Thorin Jackson and Curtis Dunlap had four apiece and Colten Yoast had two.

While the eighth-graders evened their season series with Meeker, the seventh-grade team continued its dominance of the Cowboys.

With a 25-20 win, the seventh graders improved to 2-0 on the season vs. Meeker.

Tyler Davis said little went wrong for the Bulldogs.

“I thought we played pretty well today,” he said. “We passed the ball well, I thought. I think we will need to work on slowing down and running our offense.”

Although the results were the same, Davis said the Bulldogs played better Saturday.

“I think our shooting has improved,” he said. “We were better in the post. Everything seemed to be working, and we are just looking forward to our next victory.”

Coach Drew Morris said the seventh-graders have shown improvement since the last match-up with Meeker.

“They played competitively today,” he said. “They almost gave me a heart attack near the end of the game, but they played well.”

Morris said one part of the Bulldogs’ game stood out above the rest.

“They played really good defense today,” he said. “The defense kept us in the game. If they didn’t play defense like they did, Meeker would have beaten us soundly.”