{"id":13158,"date":"2026-02-28T17:11:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-caps-undefeated-regular-season-with-senior-night-blitz-against-bayfield\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:58","slug":"montezuma-cortez-caps-undefeated-regular-season-with-senior-night-blitz-against-bayfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-caps-undefeated-regular-season-with-senior-night-blitz-against-bayfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez caps undefeated regular season with Senior Night blitz against Bayfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Trace Hartsoe drives past Bayfield\u2019s Hayes Malone in the Panthers Senior Night contest against the Wolverines on Friday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 When Mike Hall\u2019s Panthers broke preseason camp in November, the message was clear: \u201cWe control our own destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mindset began nearly 12 months earlier, when Montezuma\u2011Cortez left the floor at regional host Aspen after a heart\u2011rending 2025 4A tournament opening\u2011round loss to Timnath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we met in the locker room after the game, our returning guys made the solemn commitment that this year would be different,\u201d Hall said, \u201cand that included winning the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

A perfect regular season began as an early\u2011season goal and took shape as the Panthers kept winning, including a 48\u201146 victory over former Southwestern League foe Grand Junction, which finished as the No. 2 team in 5A.<\/p>\n

M\u2011CHS dominated out\u2011of\u2011state opponents, swept its former Southwestern League rivals and kept every Intermountain League foe at least 18 points behind. That carried into Senior Night, where a packed Jungle honored the season\u2019s \u201cBlack Out\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Panthers rolled to a 70\u201136 win over Bayfield to become one of two boys programs statewide to complete an unbeaten regular season, joining Nucla at 23\u20110.<\/p>\n

The night also included a milestone, as junior Trey Hall scored 32 points to eclipse 1,000 career points.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s early scoring set the tone, with 13 first\u2011half points helping M\u2011CHS build a 34\u201112 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez junior Trey Hall is honored postgame after breaking 1,000 career points in the Panthers Senior Night win over Bayfield on Friday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bayfield couldn\u2019t breakdown the Panthers\u2019 interior defense and turned to outside shots to keep the margin manageable. Six second\u2011half 3-pointers accounted for 18 of the Wolverines\u2019 24 points, with Hayes Malone hitting three.<\/p>\n

But the Wolverines never cut into the deficit, which stayed in the mid\u201120s through the third quarter and grew into the 30s as Hall approached his scoring milestone.<\/p>\n

With 30 seconds left and sitting on 999 points, Hall drove the baseline, spun off his defender and scored from the right block, bringing the home crowd to its feet. Head coach Mike Hall, his uncle, called timeout so Trey could take in the ovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great passing all night,\u201d Hall said, crediting teammates for the milestone, \u201cand we just knew that we were going to move the ball around, and that each of us would be able to score.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez junior Trey Hall elevates for a two-handed slam in the Panthers Senior Night contest against the Wolverines on Friday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Panthers again relied on ball movement to breakdown Bayfield. Senior Trace Hartsoe scored 10 points in his final regular\u2011season home game, joined by seniors Wyatt Oliver and Eli Slim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how our seniors keep their composure and their heads in the game all the time,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be the last time the Class of 2026 plays in The Jungle. M\u2011CHS earned its first regional host slot since 2018\u201119 and will await CHSAA\u2019s final Seeding and Selection Index to determine its opponents for March 6\u20117.<\/p>\n

Junior Asher Bennetts scored eight points, and sophomores Justin Bane and Royce Watts added six apiece. Bayfield sophomore Harrison Williams scored seven, and Malone finished with nine.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines will make the 3A state field regardless of Saturday\u2019s Senior Day result against Pagosa Springs and will learn their postseason path afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping for another packed crowd next weekend,\u201d Hall said. \u201cWe know they\u2019re going to be tough games for us \u2013 but we know that we\u2019re just going to go out and play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be the last time that the Class of \u201926 will take the floor in The Jungle, however, as M-CHS ensured their first regional hosting opportunity since 2018-19. M-CHS will await CHSAA\u2019s final rankings in their Seeding and Selection Index to determine who will pay a visit to Cortez over the weekend of Friday and Saturday, Mar. 6-7.<\/p>\n

M-CHS junior Asher Bennetts scored eight points, while sophomores Justin Bane and Royce Watts added six apiece in the win, while Bayfield sophomore Harrison Williams\u2019 seven points added to Malone\u2019s nine markers in the defeat.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines will make the 3A state field, regardless of the outcome of their own Senior Day festivities against Pagosa Springs on Saturday afternoon, and will await their own postseason fate to be announced at the conclusion of the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hall reaches 1,000-point plateau on a celebratory night<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158","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=13158"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20647,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions\/20647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13158"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}