Basketball Game Preview: Cotopaxi Pirates vs. South Park Burros

Cotopaxi is 8-2 against South Park since February of 2018 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Thursday. The Cotopaxi Pirates will host the South Park Burros at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Cotopaxi has three straight victories, South Park has eight straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Last Friday, Cotopaxi earned a 45-36 win over Creede. Given the Pirates' advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 145th, while the Miners are ranked 321st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Cotopaxi to victory, but perhaps none more so than Kenny Teter, who posted eight points in addition to nine boards and five blocks. Teter is on a roll when it comes to blocks, as he's now posted two or more in the last six games he's played. Another player making a difference was Joel Tezak, who put up 13 points and six rebounds.

Meanwhile, South Park played a tough contest on Monday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They were outmatched by Lake County and fell 70-22. The Burros were down 59-20 at the end of the third quarter, and things only got worse from there.

Cotopaxi pushed their record up to 5-2 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.7 points per game. As for South Park, their loss dropped their record down to 1-9.

Cotopaxi was able to grind out a solid win over South Park in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, winning 60-48. Does Cotopaxi have another victory up their sleeve, or will South Park turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.