Basketball Game Preview: Cotopaxi Pirates vs. De Beque Dragons

The Cotopaxi Pirates will challenge the De Beque Dragons at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Cotopaxi will be strutting in after a victory while De Beque will be coming in after a defeat.

Cotopaxi took a loss when they played away from home on Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Saturday. They walked away with a 46-38 win over Flagler.

Kenny Teter

Blocked Shots

03/01/25 vs Flagler	7
02/28/25 vs Rangely	3
02/26/25 @ Cripple Creek-Victor	4
02/22/25 vs Lake County	2
02/21/25 vs Springfield	3

Kenny Teter and Joel Tezak were among the main playmakers for Cotopaxi as the former posted 13 points in addition to seven rebounds and seven blocks and the latter shot 50% from the field to rack up 20 points and eight boards. Teter has been hot, having posted two or more blocks the last five times he's played. Another player making a difference was Justin Howell, who earned five points and four steals.

Meanwhile, De Beque was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap on Friday as they fell 60-56 to Meeker.

Cotopaxi will need to focus on slowing down Burke Largent, one of several De Beque players who made an impact when they last played. He dropped a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds. That was a full 42.9% of De Beque's points, marking the sixth time in a row Largent has scored more than a third of the team's points. Jace Graham was another key player, dropping a double-double with 12 points and 14 boards.

Cotopaxi is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 13 contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 17-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.4 points over those games. De Beque's loss dropped their record down to 14-8.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Cotopaxi has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 32 rebounds per game. However, it's not like De Beque struggles in that department as they've been averaging 33.1 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other basketball content.