Yuma High School boys basketball team is 0-2 early in the 2021 season, but showed grit in battling back in the fourth quarter of a 54-47 loss to top-ranked Limon, Saturday in the Indians’ home opener in The Pit.
Limon dominated most of the first three quarters. The Badgers scored nine straight for a 13-2 lead, and went on a 12-2 run in the second for a 27-8 lead over the hometown Indians.
Clay Robinson’s “and-one” at the end of the second quarter left the Tribe trailing 27-11 at halftime.
Yuma settled in a bit in the second half, competing with the Badgers toe-to-toe in the final two quarters.
Javier Gamboa’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the corner pulled the Indians to within 40-27 heading into the fourth.
They trailed by 15 twice early in the fourth, but Javier Duran’s 3-pointer pulled Yuma to within eight, 44-36, and Forest Rutledge’s trey made it 48-41.
However, seven points was as close as the Indians could get.
Though sitting at 0-2, Yuma has only two seniors in the varsity rotation, playing some juniors and several sophomores, so the Indians have plenty of room to grow, and plenty of promising potential, as the season progresses.
Yuma shot only nine free throws, making six. The unofficial scoring shows Robinson with 15 points, Gamboa 10 (all in the second half), Cade Morton eight, Rutledge five, Beau Tate 
The Indians are back in action Tuesday with another tough contest against the Chase County Longhorns in Imperial, Nebraska.
