By John Loop
Sports Writer
After a long two week stretch in which the Cowboys had played three of the state of Texas’ top basketball programs, including Friday night’s opponent, the Richardson Berkner Rams, Coppell looked like they were ready for a break.
The Rams stifled junior forward Simi Socks and the Cowboys, en route to a 16-point win, 52-36.
Socks was the Cowboys’ leading scorer with nine points. Junior point guard Landon Goesling did not have any follow up after his 17-point outburst on Tuesday night against South Grand Prairie, only netting one free throw.
Senior guard Walter Munnings, who recently committed to play college ball next fall at Hampton University in Virginia, stepped in off the bench to provide five points, as well as a defensive spark that helped Coppell stay in the game.
“[Walter’s] energy was really good,” head coach Kit Pehl said. “He got a lot of deflections. His defense gave us an opportunity to stay in the basketball game. Landon just had a tough night. You have got to give Walter credit. He did everything in his power to keep us in the game.”
The first quarter seemed uncharacteristic of the Cowboys, who only put up four points on the board. Coppell has been a very good first quarter team over the course of the season, but Berkner’s perimeter defense stifled the Cowboys’ offense to almost no production whatsoever.
The quarter ended with a 14-4 score.
“We just talked about executing,” Pehl said. “We were not quite as strong as we needed to be.”
The second quarter though seemed like a completely different story. The Cowboys pieced together a solid run, mainly capitalizing off Berkner turnovers. But the Rams still clung to a 19-15 score at halftime, led by a strong all-around game by Rams senior forward Soma Edo.
Edo had his way with the Cowboys on Friday, staying aggressive under the basket and piling up nine points, while also bullying Socks and senior center Patrick Barden in the paint.
“He is very athletic and he is a very good player,” Barden said. “We knew we had to be smart against him. Keeping him away from the rim was going to be the key to stopping him on both ends of the court, and we were not able to do that.”
Most impressive, though, but not unexpected, was the play of the Berkner guards. Not only did senior USC commit Kendal Harris (7 points) or junior Keenan Evans (12 points) bury shot after shot in the faces of the Cowboy defense, but junior Josh Francis gave the Rams an unlikely helping hand with his eight points on the night.
“We felt like No. 5 (Harris) was their catalyst,” Pehl said. “He got off in transition early, and mostly because of our turnovers. We turned it over too much initially, and that allowed [Harris] to get going.”
At the beginning of the second half, the Cowboys found an offensive rhythm as senior three-point specialist Calvin Michaelis hit Coppell’s first three pointer of the night.
But Berkner pulled away in the last two quarters to effectively put away the Cowboys and finish the game.
“The things that Coach [Pehl] talked about were that we need more energy on defense and we need to come out and play,” Barden said. “Coach [Lance] Boxell said we need more time to improve everyday, because practice is not enough.”
The Cowboys drop to 7-9 with their next game at Rockwall High School on Tuesday night.
