by Coleman Armes
Staff Writer
With the basketball season tipping off the Coppell Cowboy’s came out and beat the Plano East Panthers 60-41.
This game was not only just the start of the season for the Cowboys it was also the beginning of the long road to defend their district championship, which they earned last year. It also was sort of a rivalry game as these two teams have met in their season openers 15 straight times now.
The game started off and the Cowboys looked strong with senior guard Warren Oishi throwing up a pass for senior forward Jett Raines, who made an impressive dunk. By the end of the first quarter the Cowboys lead the Panthers 17-14.
In the second quarter the Cowboys couldn’t seem to put many points on the board, scoring only 6 points. However the 6 that were scored were pretty big. They came from senior guard Martin Kalev who came off the bench to hit two 3-pointers. Going into half the Cowboys lead 23-21 and would look to come out scoring more.
The Cowboys came out in the third and played hard showing that the 6 points scored in the second would not be tolerated by scoring 19 points in the third. Senior forward Austin Mankin and Oishi led the charge with 5 points each. Raines also contributed when he went up for a layup which he made while being fouled. He then went to the line a hit a free throw to turn the layup into a 3 point play. The quarter ended with the Cowboys pulling away 42-32.
In the fourth the Cowboys just added on to their lead scoring 18 points in total. Perhaps the most impressive play in the game came during the fourth when Cowboy’s sophomore post Simi Socks dunked the ball basically putting the nail in the coffin for the game. When it was all said and done the Cowboys won 60-41 and became 1-0 on the season.
The game could be pretty much be summed up into this.
“We started off slow and then got the first game nerves out of us. From there we got a big lead and took it from there,” Oishi said.
The Cowboys will face their next opponent, Irving MacArthur, away Friday, November 18, at 8:00pm.
