{"id":13226,"date":"2026-02-27T19:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-boys-basketball-tests-sjbl-champs-nucla-on-senior-night\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:15","slug":"dolores-boys-basketball-tests-sjbl-champs-nucla-on-senior-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-boys-basketball-tests-sjbl-champs-nucla-on-senior-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores boys basketball tests SJBL champs Nucla on Senior Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DHS
DHS junior Owen Lowe drives to the rim against Nucla\u2019s Holten McCluer in the Bears\u2019 Senior Night game against the Mustangs in The Den. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOLORES \u2013 A season of revival for Dolores basketball reached its home\u2011court finale Thursday night as seniors from both programs received a loud send-off from a packed Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n

The Bears boys (13\u201110, 7\u20115 3A\/2A\/1A SJBL) and girls (10\u201113, 6\u20116) combined for 23 wins, their highest total since 2012\u201113. Playing at home for the final time, Dolores honored five seniors during Senior Night losses to league champion Nucla.<\/p>\n

With the regular season complete, the boys secured their first postseason berth since 2018\u201119 and their first winning record since 2016\u201117.<\/p>\n

Second\u2011year head coach Nick Traweek\u2019s team will learn its playoff placement after the rest of Colorado concludes the CHSAA regular season this weekend. The girls, led by first\u2011year head coach Mike Nielson, closed their winningest season since 2017\u201118 and reached .500 in league play for the first time in seven years.<\/p>\n

Seniors Taylor Erautt, Kacey Schmittel and Natalya Castillo ended their DHS careers Thursday. Boys seniors Michael Rantz and Will Nielson now look ahead to their first postseason appearance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Boys <\/strong><\/div>\n
Nucla 60, Dolores 41<\/strong><\/div>\n

Dolores pushed 1A No. 2 Nucla (23\u20110, 12\u20110) as close as any opponent this season, holding the Mustangs to 15 first\u2011half points and taking a three-point lead into halftime. Junior Miles Brown scored six of his eight points before the break, helping the Bears carry momentum into the locker room before Nucla answered with a dominant third quarter.<\/p>\n

The Mustangs hit four three\u2011pointers in the third and outscored Dolores 24\u20115 to pull away. Junior Koby McClellan led DHS with 10 points, while Rantz and junior Owen Lowe added seven each. Nucla\u2019s Brycen Rummel and Holten McCluer scored 15 points apiece.<\/p>\n

Dolores will travel for regional play against an opponent to be determined, opening in the round of 32 on Friday, March 6. Regional finals are scheduled for the following day.<\/p>\n

Girls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nucla 45, Dolores 14<\/strong><\/div>\n

Dolores tightened its defense against 1A No. 7 Nucla (22\u20111, 12\u20110) but couldn\u2019t keep pace with the Mustangs\u2019 balanced scoring. Eight Nucla players scored, led by 10 points from junior Lantry Galley and nine from junior Shay Snyder. The Bears managed four field goals in their season finale.<\/p>\n

Taylor and Jordyn Erautt combined for 12 points, while Castillo and junior Bryley Paul each added a free throw as Dolores finished fifth in the Basin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

close out strongest season in eight years, boys await 2A tournament fate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13227,"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-13226","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\/13226","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=13226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20652,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226\/revisions\/20652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13226"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}