<\/p>\n
For the first half, the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers played like they were the undefeated state-ranked team, while the 5-0 and Class 2A No. 3 Ignacio Bobcats floundered.<\/p>\n
The Panthers played a near-perfect first quarter, holding Ignacio to just two points and crashing the defensive glass, limiting the Bobcats\u2019 second-chance opportunities.<\/p>\n
M-CHS keyed its defense around the Bobcats\u2019 two leading scorers, Anthony Manzanares and Wyatt Hayes, holding them each to just four points in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe scouted them out, and I\u2019ve coached against them for five years,\u201d Hall said after the game. \u201cI know who their players are, and I knew that we had to do a platoon-thing on Manzanares because he\u2019s an athlete, he runs, he\u2019s fast. Same thing with Hayes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensively, the Panthers made a point to pound the ball inside and take advantage of their size, working high-low action with post players Luis Perry and Austin Bayles, who each scored four points in the first frame and finished with 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to take advantage of Luis\u2019 size, for one, and Austin\u2019s physicality and ability to see the whole court,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
The Panthers stayed the course in the second quarter, attempting to slow the game down and grind out possessions in order to limit the high-powered Ignacio offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew they were a fast-paced team, and we have to slow it down because we\u2019re not going to keep up with the speed getting Luis the ball,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
M-CHS led 21-14 at half, but the Ignacio offense that entered the game averaging nearly 60 points per contest showed up to start the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIgnacio did a good job of changing the tempo back to their favor,\u201d said Hall. \u201cAnd we couldn\u2019t get out of a little funk that we were in and then once Luis (Perry) got into a little foul trouble it hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Igancio outscored M-CHS 28-19 in the third quarter to take a 42-40 lead to start the fourth, and the Bobcats did the damage without second-leading scorer Manzanares, who was ejected for an intentional foul midway through the quarter.<\/p>\n
With Manzanares out, Ignacio head coach Chris Valdez tossed Hayes the keys to the car.<\/p>\n
Hayes took over the game, scoring 14 points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth to give the Bobcats a nine-point lead late in the contest. He finished with 29 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing you can do against probably the best player in 2A right there. I mean, we played good D, but there\u2019s nothing you can do about it,\u201d Hall said chuckling.<\/p>\n
After sitting with foul trouble for most of the third quarter, Perry rattled off eight straight M-CHS points to bring the Panthers within one in the fourth.<\/p>\n
The two teams traded buckets and the Panthers hung around, keeping the Bobcats within reach as the clock dwindled, and with under a minute remaining, Bayles scored to pull the Panthers back within one, trailing 58-57.<\/p>\n
Ignacio senior Tucker Ward knocked down two free throws to push the Bobcats\u2019 lead back to three with 35 seconds left, and with a shot to tie the game, Jasen Engel\u2019s 3-point attempt came up just short.<\/p>\n
The Panthers were then forced to foul, and Ignacio free throws and an M-CHS turnover in the closing seconds sealed the 63-57 win for the Bobcats.<\/p>\n
Bayles and Perry led the Panthers with 14 points each, Aron Engel scored nine, Fernandez added seven, and Obed Simental hit two triples for six points.<\/p>\n
Even in the loss, Hall said he noticed positive things from his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur defense is really picking up, and we looked really good crashing the boards tonight,\u201d he said. \u201cOffensively, we\u2019ve never moved the ball like we did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually we\u2019re at one or two passes and crank up a three,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut now, the kids are starting to get a little more disciplined and starting to fall in line with the offense, and they\u2019ll make the extra two or three passes and we\u2019ll get a wide open shot. And it showed tonight against a very good defensive team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bobcats\u2019 Hayes leads second-half comeback<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[21],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-107259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cortez"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107259"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}