After reaching the regional finals a year ago, the Burlington Cougars headed into last week’s Class 2A District 8 tournament attempting to punch a ticket to this weekend’s regional round. While they came up short in making a district championship game appearance, they were successful in earning the shot to play on.
Less than a month after collecting a 56-40 win at home over Colorado Springs School, the Cougars again welcomed the Kodiaks to town last Monday. They faced a different attack from their opponent in the district quarterfinal than what they saw in the regular season clash. The Kodiaks attempted to slow the contest down, utilizing the Princeton offense, burning clock on every trip down the court. With a head coach who played in the system at the Air Force Academy, they were very patient throughout the entire contest.
The Cougars grabbed an early lead, but CSS came back and held a slim advantage at the half. Burlington put together a huge 16-0 run that spanned the final minutes of the third quarter and first few minutes of the fourth to get back on top. The Kodiaks hung around, but Burlington hit clutch free throws to pull out a 49-43 victory.
Keziah Williams had a double-double of 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Cougars in the victory. The senior also had four assists, four steals, and a blocked shot. Daniel Chacon added seven points, nine rebounds, two steals, and a blocked shot; Rowdy Humrich, seven points; Rodolfo Estrada, five points and a block; Stanton Cure, four points and seven rebounds; Thomas Schaal, four points and a block; and Adan Lopez, two points.
The win moved the Cougars into the semifinals on Friday against #2 Limon, with the game being played at Kiowa High School. Burlington fought the Badgers to the buzzer earlier in the year, dropping the contest by a 60-49 count. Once again, they went toe-to-toe with Limon, but could not convert at key times and fell 55-37.
With a 10-10 record against some of the top competition in the classification, the Cougars made the regional bracket as the No. 17 seed. They will square off against No. 16 Telluride (14-7) at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Simla. The winner will get either the top-seeded host or No. 32 Cotopaxi at 1 p.m. Saturday.